I’m switching gears away from the gothic romance of our vampire theme to some creepy scary fun, beginning with this gruesome recipe for Amputated Appetizer. I decided to resurrect one of my earliest Halloween recipes from Castellon’s Kitchen and give it a little resuscitation. Not that it needs it. This recipe is still one of my most popular pins on Pinterest. But, for all the fame, there’s also the infamy. It’s the one that gets flagged all the time as disturbing content. I’ll admit, it is pretty realistic looking. But, really there’s nothing to be afraid of, it’s just a charcuterie board in a Halloween costume! So get ready to hear your guests gasp when you break out this shocking cheese board. Fingers-crossed that it doesn’t get flagged again.
I’ve made a few improvements to the original recipe by adding a roasted red bell pepper filling to the palm of the hand and substituting small paninos for the fingers, which makes for easier assembly. I also included a suggestion from one of my readers who made a template of an arm and used it as a guide when shaping the hand. A great idea that makes it easy to put together! Happy Halloween!
Amputated Appetizer
Ingredients
- 8 oz. cream cheese room temperature
- 5 oz. herbed goat cheese room temperature
- 1 large mozzarella and prosciutto panino roll (arm)
- 5 small mozzarella and prosciutto panino rolls (fingers)
- ½ cup roasted red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 pkg sliced prosciutto
Instructions
- Create a template on a piece of parchment paper by tracing your hand and arm with a pencil.
- Test placement of the arm and fingers on template and note how big the palm area will need to be filled with the cream cheese mixture. Remove arm and finger paninos from template and set aside.
- Mix cream cheese and goat cheese together. Use a small cookie scoop to transfer about half the cream cheese mixture to the palm area of the template.
- Use a spatula to gently smooth out the cream cheese mixture to form the bottom layer of the palm of the hand.
- You may want to scoop out a little of the middle of the bottom layer of cream cheese to make room for more bell peppers. Add roasted red bell peppers to the center of the bottom layer of the palm.
- Use the cookie scoop to add the top layer of cheese over the bell pepper center. Smooth out with a spatula.
- Add prosciutto rolls for the arm and fingers. Fill in any areas with remaining cream cheese mixture, smoothing to even out the transition between the palm and fingers and the arm.
- Cover cheese layer with slices of prosciutto, trimming where needed.
- Refrigerate arm for a few hours to firm up the cream cheese mixture so the arm can be moved off the parchment paper and onto a serving platter or cutting board. Serve with crackers, bread, fruit, olives, etc. Happy Halloween!
Freaking awesome!
Thank you so much! 🖤💀
Lori
Wow that’s bloody fantastic! Did you also make the black crackers?
Thank you. No, I purchased the charcoal crackers on line from igourmet.com. And the red beet crackers I picked up from my grocery store in the deli section.
🖤 Lori
What are the arm base and fingers stuffed with? Or are they just rolled prosciutto?
The arm and the fingers are paninos I got from the grocery store, which are just mozzarella rolls wrapped in prosciutto.
Lori
How did you make the Crackers black and red?
I bought the charcoal crackers from igourmet.com and the red beet crackers from my grocery store.
Lori 🖤
I absolutely love this!
Thank you so much! 🖤🖤🖤
I love this idea! However, I’m not much for red peppers (they don’t agree with me). Is there something else you can suggest? Do you think roasted and chopped cherry tomatoes would work?
Hi Donna
You definitely can leave them out, in fact most folks who have made this, didn’t stuff the hand with anything. Roasted tomatoes might be a little too watery for this recipe, unless you drain them well. I do that with my red bell peppers too. Or try using sun dried tomatoes and chop them finely or add a homemade pesto that way you can control the amount of oil you add to the pesto. Hope that helps, Happy Halloween my dear!
Lori 🖤
Looks great! Can I make it the night before?
Absolutely! 🖤Lori
So cool!! I’m planning to make it for my annual Halloween party this weekend!
I’m having trouble finding the panino roll in my local grocery stores. Any suggestions for a substitution?
Hi Joyce
How about just adding more of the herbed cheese mixture like the palm portion and cover with prosciutto, or roll up sliced mozzarella cheese with prosciutto and a little basil to create your own panino roll. Hope that helps.
Lori🖤
I’m planning on using string cheese and prosciutto