Having a few days at home due to Hurricane Sandy closing the federal government led to more opportunities to cook things. I had planned to bake a brownie-based baked good for Bryan and then make it fabulously Halloween-themed. I did some perusing on Pinterest and Google and arrived at Graveyard Brownies being THE one. There were a bunch of versions so I simply pulled from several to end up with exactly what I wanted although some people poked fun at my “grass” (green-tinted coconut flakes) layout being illogical (Yeah, Mike I’m talking to you). I grabbed the most fudge-laden brownie mix box possible, followed those directions, leaving most of the work to decorating scene. Overall, I was thrilled how it turned out. The only lessons learned were changing up the “grass” layout and buying a thicker/more substantial cookie. The Pepperidge Farm Bordeaux cookies had the texture and squared off shape that I wanted for the tombstones, but they were too thin and eventually toppled over from, I suspect, the moisture of the brownies. Milanos would likely fare better. I hope you’ll make something like this next year!
Halloween night was particularly fun. Why stop at a pan of Graveyard Brownies when you can tap into your inner child dressing up and heading out for trick-or-treating. Our cover was that we were 18 year old high school students. We got some laughs and comments, but didn’t affect the candy going into the bag. It was a lot of fun running up with toddler – 10 year olds. A friend of mine had recommended this one street in our neighborhood where the whole block does it with Halloween decorations. She was not kidding! There were haunted houses set-ups, houses with various full-on themes like a pirate ship, houses with 25+ carved pumpkins (like the super difficult designs not your typical jack-o-lantern faces), and more. These people were spending $1,000s upon $1,000s on their decorations. The street was absolutely packed too so I can only imagine how much candy they bought. One house said 650 trick-or-treaters had already come by and this was at probably 7:45 pm! It was fun to revisit the experience and we have some good loot to pick from in the coming months. I was a highway patrol officer and Bryan was a Son of Anarchy character. Here are the photos of our sweet costumes:
Ingredients:
- 1 box of Duncan Hines fudge brownie mix
- eggs (See brownie mix directions)
- vegetable oil (See brownie mix directions)
- 1 can of Chocolate Fudge frosting
- Pepperidge Farm cookies (preferably Milanos, I used Bordeaux but not as stable)
- Black or brown writing icing
- 1 pack of ghost Peeps
- Green food color
- Coconut flakes
- Mellocreme pumpkins
- Chocolate cookie crumbs (I used Thin Mints, but Oreos would work well too; not pictured)
Directions:
- Follow directions on brownie mix box, baking in a 9 x 13. Let cool 15 minutes before icing the whole pan.
- Tint about 1/2- 1 cup coconut flakes with a few drops of green food coloring and stir well.
- Crush cookies in a ziplock bag.
- Write RIP on one side of the top of your cookies.
- Decorate your pan of brownies like a graveyard!
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