Sandworm - A Halloween Fun Food

I am updating the post with photos of the baked Sandworm.  Other than that, the post is still the same.

Halloween will be on Tuesday this year.   That means that a lot of Halloween parties were held this Friday and Saturday.   Although I was not going to a party or having a party, I was going to a Dungeons and Dragons game.  We normally bring food because the game starts at 6 pm.  Since it was so close to Halloween, I wanted to make something special.  This year I decided to make a Sandworm, a fictional creature from a Science Fiction series called Dune.

Many Dungeons and Dragons players are fond of fantasy and science fiction genres.  The Dune series written by Frank Herbert is not only a book, but a motion picture.  In Dune, there is a product called Melange, generally referred to as "spice".  Melange is said to improve general health, give long life, and also give some prescient abilities.  It is rare, and the most valuable commodity in the inter-stellar community.  The spice is said to look and taste something like cinnamon.  It is mined on Arrakis.  The mining of the spice attracts sandworms; huge creatures that are native to the planet.  The series has many complex plot lines, but every reader is going to be familiar with the sandworms. 

At one time I used to have a science fiction themed food potluck party.  People were invited to bring food made to look like foods in one of three categories:  foods shown in science fiction films, foods made to look like something in a science fiction film (example a cake that looks like a space ship),  or for those not that familiar with science fiction just something about science in general (example:  a salad laid out to look like Saturn and its rings.  I had this recipe for the Sandworm from that time, but had never made it.  It looked like  a lot of work.  As it turned out, it was.  But, I'm glad I made it because it turned out to be a real hit with the our players.

Rather than go into the whole recipe here, which is quite lengthy, I am including a link to the recipe.  kitchenoverlord.com/dune-week-spice-filled-sandworm/
The recipe is basically a recipe for cinnamon buns, but with a twist.  It also has some Garam Masala in it.  Garam Masala is a mixture of ground spices: cumin and coriander seeds,  peppercorns, cardomen pods, cloves cinnamon stick and nutmeg.The flavor of cinnamon is there, but with another flavor that is hard to describe; somewhat peppery, somewhat sweet, somewhat savory.  In the Dune series the flavor of "spice" varies from one time to the next.  The unusual flavor of Garam Masala leaves the taster with a sense of mystery; cinnamon, but something else as well.

Anyway, I made the recipe.  I took some pictures of it before it was baked, but in the rush to get finished and out the door I never took pictures of it once it was baked.  The photo shows it with aluminum foil stuffed in the mouth.  That helps to keep the mouth open so that it has a gaping maw to show off the rows of teeth.  Once I arrived at the game, one of the players took some pictures with his phone, but has not yet sent them to me, so I do not have photos of my finished product.  However, on the link above, there are photos of a baked sandworm.

I do have a couple of comments on the recipe.  First off, the teeth, made of slivered almonds were brittle.  They tended to break apart while they were being inserted into the dough.  The teeth also tended to brown quickly and can burn.  It might be worthwhile to cover that area for a few minutes to help keep the almonds whiter.

The other comment was on baking time.  My sandworm turned out to be shorter and fatter than the one shown in the link above.  The length and thickness of the sandworm will affect the baking time.  I have made cinnamon buns before and had the center come out still wet and doughy if I only cooked by the recommended time.  I used an instant read thermometer to check to make sure that the center of the bread was done.  Generally, bread is done by 200 to 210 degrees Fahrenheit (93.33 to 98.88 C).  If I had pulled this loaf at the suggested time, it would not have been done in the center.

In case you don't often make bread, you should know that this recipe takes a long time because yeast breads have to rise.  In this case, the bread has to rise twice.  Generally an hour to an hour and a half for the first rise, and another thirty minutes for the second rise.  So plan on having a considerable amount of time available if you want to make this recipe. It was a fun food for Halloween, but it took the better part of a day to make it.

A somewhat shorter and fatter sandworm turned out to look really great.  When the bread baked, it really looked like it had folds in its skin.  In the Dune series, the mouth of the sandworm was said to be eighty meters across.  A fatter sandworm seemed to give that impression of the huge.  I will post pictures of the baked sandworm if I get the them.  In the mean time, I only have the unbaked pictures.

Check back for the latest on my craft projects next blog post.