In our house, it isn’t Halloween until you’ve watched Hocus Pocus, so this year I decided that for our annual Hocus Pocus movie night, I was going to make some spellbook brownies. However, I decided this last minute so I had to come up with something quick, plus I had just finished cleaning up my kitchen and started the dishwasher…then I had an idea! What if I made these treats the easy way, with maybe only a small bowl and cooling rack to wash afterward…maybe even a fork.
There’s no baking involved in this treat making process, so don’t worry about getting flour, sugar, or any other brownie ingredient, you don’t even need brownie box mix. Not that there’s anything wrong with going that route, had I thought of this earlier I would have probably gone the “made from scratch” route too. But I ain’t got time for that today. So I headed to the grocery store to pick up some ready-made brownies.
I found these are my local grocery store, I actually remember my parents packing these brownies in my lunch bag when I was a kid. It was such an exciting treat to get for lunch. It doesn’t matter that there are chocolate chips on them because I picked up a can of chocolate frosting, not the whipped kind, to cover them.
For the black icing, you can either buy ready-made black frosting from the baking aisle or you can make it your self, which is super easy. It’s just some powdered icing sugar, water, and black food colouring. I had those ingredients at home, so I decided not the buy any ready-made black frosting.
You’ll also need a black food coloring marker, I found mine at the grocery store, but you can find them at Michaels, Bulk Barn, or Amazon. And don’t forget the candy eyes.
I also recommend getting Wilton Color Right Performance Colour System. There’s a colour guide that comes with it and honest to the pumpkin king, I won’t go back to food colouring gels or generic food colouring. These colours come out exactly like they are supposed to. There’s no frustration, at least in my opinion, and no this is not a sponsored post, just my honest opinion.
Okay, getting back to the Hocus Pocus brownies.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place a cooling rack on top. This is going to help with the excessive chocolate drip and will make it easier to move the brownies to a plate afterward. Then take your candy eyes and draw the creeping spellbook eye, as I did above.
Remove the brownies from the packaging and cut them in half, so they are square sized. Take 1/2 cup of the chocolate frosting and melt it down. You want to make it easy to dip the brownies in and when they dry it’ll be nice and smooth. We don’t have a microwave, so I melted my chocolate stove-top, stirring constantly, so it wouldn’t burn. If you do have a microwave, place the 1/2 cup in a microwave-proof bowl and melt at 30-second intervals, until it’s melted.
Dip the brownies in the frosting. Be careful, the frosting will be hot, so use a fork to get the brownie covered and let the excess chocolate dip into the bowl. Place on the cooling rack. While the frosting is still soft, add the eye. Place your baking sheet in the freezer for 20 minutes, to help harden the frosting.
In the meantime, put 1/2 cup of powdered sugar in a bowl, add 1 tbsp of water and 10 drops of the black food colouring. You want the icing to do a bit on the thicker side, too thin and your black details will expand and drip off your brownie…trust me I learn the hard way. On the flip side, if this does happen to you, just after more powdered sugar 1/2 tbsp at a time to thicken it back up.
Remove your brownies from the freezer and decorate. Once decorated, I kept them in the fridge until I was ready to serve them. And let me tell you, they were such a big hit! Chris brought the leftover into work, and he didn’t come home with any of them, except the container he took them in…
These would also be great for a kids or adult Halloween party, or if you just feel like making a yummy Halloween treat for yourself!
Hocus Pocus Easy Book Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 box of ready-made brownie treats
- 1/2 cup of ready-made chocolate frosting
- Candy eyes for decorating
- Black Food Writer
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp water
- 10 drops of black food coloring
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place a cooling rack on top. This is going to help with the excessive chocolate drip and will make it easier to move the brownies to a plate afterward.
- Take your candy eyes and draw the creeping spellbook eye
- Remove the brownies from the packaging and cut them in half, so they are square sized.
- Take 1/2 cup of the chocolate frosting and melt it down. You want to make it easy to dip the brownies in and when they dry it’ll be nice and smooth. We don’t have a microwave, so I melted my chocolate stove-top, stirring constantly, so it wouldn’t burn. If you do have a microwave, place the 1/2 cup in a microwave-proof bowl and melt at 30-second intervals, until it’s melted.
- Dip the brownies in the frosting. Be careful, the frosting will be hot, so use a fork to get the brownie covered and let the excess chocolate dip into the bowl.
- Place on the cooling rack.
- While the frosting is still soft, add the eye.
- Place your baking sheet in the freezer for 20 minutes, to help harden the frosting.
- For Black Frosting: put 1/2 cup of powdered sugar in a bowl, add 1 tbsp of water and 10 drops of the black food colouring. You want the icing to be a bit on the thicker side, too thin and your black details will expand and drip off your brownie…trust me I learn the hard way. On the flip side, if this does happen to you, just after more powdered sugar 1/2 tbsp at a time to thicken it back up.
- Remove your brownies from the freezer and decorate. Once decorated, I kept them in the fridge until I was ready to serve them.
- Category: Dessert
What treats are you making for Halloween?
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