Cackling Crackers and Full Moon Dip

This Cackling Crackers and Full Moon Dip is an amazingly delicious appetizer! Cook up this dish in your cauldron and your guests will be dying for the recipe!

Does your family have that one dish that is served at virtually every family function? Our gatherings would not be complete without a serving dish filled with bubbling hot chicken dip. My mom started making this years ago, and I have no idea where she got the original recipe. It only requires a few ingredients and a few minutes of prep time and almost every member of my family will eat it, which can’t be said for most things – so many picky eaters!

When I was creating witch themed recipes for my cookbook, I came up with the idea to have a witch flying across a moon and knew that the chicken dip served in a round dish would work wonderfully as a moon. We usually serve the dip with crackers, so I decided to try my hand at making homemade crackers shaped like flying witches to go along with my moon dip.

I had never made homemade crackers before developing this recipe, but found they were so simple to make. I wanted a light crispy cracker with a very mild flavor, but I also wanted the crackers to be black so they would appeared as silhouettes of the flying witches. At first I tried to use dark colored flours to make the crackers, but didn’t like the more robust crackers with the dip, then I tried sprinkling poppy seeds over a more plain cracker, but this too was not the flavor I was after, so I finally decided to just add black food coloring to a buttery cracker made with all purpose flour.

I thought the resulting crackers looked great and tasted perfect with the chicken dip. I just love the silhouette of the flying witch against the moon and I am looking forward to serving this at our Halloween party this year. We haven’t nailed down the actual title of our party theme, but our house will be decorated with witches and wizards, so this dish will be a wonderful addition to our Halloween buffet.

Cackling Crackers and Full Moon Dip (Serves 12)recipe excerpt from Hungry Halloween featuring Movie Monster Munchies, Bewitched Buffet, and Dead Man’s Diner

Ingredients:

Cackling Crackers:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 stick unsalted butter, divided
1/3 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon black paste food coloring
1 tablespoon olive oil
Table salt

Full Moon Dip (Chicken Dip):
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 (12 oz.) can chunk chicken breast

Special Equipment Needed:

Witch Template Click on this link for a PDF file of the witch template.
White card stock paper
Food Processor, optional
Witch shaped cookie cutters
parchment paper lined baking sheet or non-stick baking sheet
Hand held mixer
9” round ramekin or pie plate

Instructions:

Cackling Crackers:

To Create Witch Stencil: Click on this link for a PDF file of the witch template. Print the witch template onto a piece of card stock paper. Cut out image of witch.

Pour flour, baking powder, and kosher salt into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse three times. Add 6 tablespoons butter and pulse 10 times. Add milk and black paste food coloring and pulse until mixture forms a ball. If dough looks dry, add up to a tablespoon of milk. You can also do this in a bowl, using a pastry cutter or large fork.

Pour dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 10 times. Divide dough into three balls. Pour olive oil into a shallow bowl. Place dough balls into bowl and coat them in the oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Lightly flour work surface. Roll dough out as thin as possible. Lay witch stencil on dough and cut out around witch. Cut remaining dough with witch shaped cookie cutters, re-rolling as needed. Place cut outs on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Prick each cracker all over using a fork. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Brush crackers with butter and sprinkle salt, to taste, over tops. Bake for 8-12 minutes until crackers are crisp.

Full Moon Dip (Chicken Dip):

Combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and chicken in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until combined. Spread into an 9” round ramekin or pie plate. Bake, covered with foil, in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Top with large witch cracker and serve hot with remaining Cackling Crackers.