Day Of The Dead Blueberry Ganache Skulls
Ancestor Worship
Halloween, The Day of the Dead, All Saints Day, All Hallow’s Eve & Samhain are celebrated at the end of October and beginning of November. While in America, advertisers have turned this ancestral holiday into a candy buying bonanza, other parts of the world hold this day as one of high spiritual reserve and worship.
You may be unaware but the concept of Halloween was taken from the Pagan and Celtic communities which honor the turn of the season each year in a festival called Samhain in which the end of the summer harvest is honored and the beginning of winter is celebrated.
The tradition of wearing a costume arose from the Celtic tradition of believing that a mask or costume could scare away or protect one from the abundance of evil spirits walking the earth these few days. This tradition has been passed down for centuries at this point and the Celts are not the only ancient civilization taking part in ancestor worship.
The Day of The Day is an ancient Aztec tradition that has been passed down for centuries in which people celebrate and honor those who have passed by wearing colorful masks and showing their reverence with food.
Faith, Gut Health & Autoimmunity
For me, this time of the year always feels like a big portal that’s ready to jump right into and I use it to help me seek out and achieve connecting to a higher power more easily and sustainably. I’ve let go of the idea that my spiritual practice needs to look a certain way or be a certain way and the truth that that has uncovered for me is that the more I am able to tune into my inner world, the better my autoimmune and gut health is.
When I remove these connections, the ancestor worship or any other worship, I begin to feel my gut health declining. The biggest lesson for me around this was that my spiritual health is just as important as the food I am ingesting, if not more important.
It has also helped me listen to my intuition more which naturally allows me to bypass my own set of judgements, self doubt and fear around this time of year which can cause so much anxiety for those us with chronic health conditions. And it doesn’t matter if that condition is IBS, hashimoto’s, a thyroid issue, diabetes, RA, you name it.
For me - if I’m not doing the spiritual work, all the candy in the world, all the inner thoughts and everything else is pretty much what Joey from friends might say - it’s all just a “moo” point. It’s like a cow’s opinion. It just doesn’t matter. You know what I mean?
DAY OF THE DEAD BLUEBERRY GANACHE SKULLS
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup chocolate chips
2 tbsp hazelnut chocolate spread
2-3 tbsp coconut milk, to thin
½ cup frozen or fresh blueberries
10g bovine gelatin
½ cup full fat coconut milk
1 tbsp apple sauce
PREPARATIONS:
Add ½ cup of the chocolate chips to a small dish and melt them in the microwave. I usually melt mine in 15 –30 second increments to prevent burning the chocolate. You can also use a bain marie or double broiler.
Once you have a smooth consistency, take a mold of your choice and add in the melted chocolate. Coat the bottom of the mold and sides with the chocolate. Then, freeze for 10 minutes.
While your chocolate is freezing, prepare the ganache and blueberries. Start by adding two tablespoons full of the chocolate spread into a small bowl. Add 2-3 tablespoons of full fat coconut milk to smooth out the mixture and give it a creamy yet thick consistency. Set this aside.
Add the blueberries to a small saucepan and allow them to begin to break down. You want to get them to be a jam like consistency and once they have broken down enough, add in the gelatin. Use a hand held blender to blend everything together. Allow this to cool.
While the blueberries are cooling, remove the frozen chocolate from the freezer and dollop a bit of the ganache filling into the center of each skull mold. Once the berries have cooled, pour them over the mold as well. Make sure you wait for them to cool down a bit as the heat from the berries can melt the chocolate so use caution here. Immediately transfer this to the freezer and wait an hour or so.
Once they’re frozen solid, melt the remaining ½ cup of chocolate in your double broiler or microwave and pour it over top of each mold, sealing the mixture.
Transfer to the freezer once more.
Once frozen, remove from the molds and keep them in the freezer until you’re ready to consume. Leave out for 10-15 minutes before biting in, for a delicious pop of flavor.