Halloween Treats

As these pictures attest, I'm a huge fan of Halloween. Always have been. I love coming up with costume ideas, making them, carving pumpkins, decorating the house, and (now that we live in a house) having trick-or-treaters.

This year, Lisa and Ruth joined us for a night of pizza, cookies and candy, drinks and caramel apples.



I bought this month's Martha Stewart Living magazine, and was inspired by the treat tubes featured. I made some of my own with crepe paper streamer, some printouts from the computer, and filled them with candy and spider & skull rings. We handed them out along with glow bracelets to the 30 or so kids that came to the door.



I made up some easy pumpkin cookies, using a recipe from the New Cookbook from Better Homes & Gardens, omitting the raisins and nuts in the original.

Pumpkin Cookies
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tspn baking powder
1 tspn ground cinnamon
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/2 tspn ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tspn vanilla

Stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, soda, and nutmeg. Beat butter for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and beat til fluffy. Add egg, pumpkin, and vanilla. Beat well. Add dry ingredients, beating til well combined. Drop from a teaspoon 2 inches apart onto a greased cookie sheet (or one lined with parchment paper or a silicon mat). Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.



Ruth brought all the fixins for caramel apples, made from scratch using this recipe from Recipezaar.com, and we had a great time all packed in our tiny kitchen cooking up the caramel, dipping the apples, and rolling some of them in crushed candy bars. And eating them, of course.

Caramel Apples
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tspn vanilla
8-10 wooden sticks
8-10 medium tart apples

Insert sticks in apples. In a heavy saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and milk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook and stir until a candy thermometer reads 248 degrees (firm ball stage), about 30-40 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Dip each apple into the hot caramel mixture, and turn to coat. Holding by the stick, sprinkle or roll in nuts or crushed/chopped candy while caramel is soft. Set on generously buttered waxed paper to cool.