Beyond Tricks and Treats

Come November 1st, a nationwide tummy ache is pretty much the norm, stomachs still riotous with the undue stress of containing more Halloween candy than is advisable to eat in even two or three sittings. Something about the festivities just gets under the skin, the holiday itself being a grand excuse to go crazy and overdo the sugar. Common sense be damned, it’s the same pattern every year, from young to young at heart feeling the aftereffects of this particularly sweet evening. Awareness of such consequences still does little to dissuade me from indulging perhaps more than is advisable, but it does make me keenly aware of everything else fueling me that day. Without a solid foundation of whole grains and protein beforehand, the inevitable sugar crash would be a very ugly scene indeed.

That doesn’t mean those healthier options must be austere and dull, though! Black and orange to match the “traditional” colors of Halloween, this dish is a touch spicy too, enhanced with a slightly devilish addition of paprika and red pepper flakes. Toothsome wild rice makes it a stellar sort of pilaf, but it can also be an easy, no-muss main dish as well, thanks to the protein-packed black beans.

Even if you do plan on loading up on the sweet stuff, as I do, start the day out right with something a bit healthier first. There’s no need for the candy hangover the following morning!

Yield: Serves 8 – 12 as a Side; 4 – 6 as a Main

Halloween Rice

Name: Halloween Rice
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Total time: 1 h 45 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 Cups Uncooked Wild Rice; 3 Tablespoons Coconut Oil; 1 Small Yellow Onion, Chopped; 3 Large Cloves Garlic, Minced; 1 Teaspoon Black Mustard Seeds; 1/2 – 1 Small Chili Pepper, Finely Minced, or 1/4 – 3/4 Teaspoon Dried Red Pepper Flakes; 1/2 Teaspoon Hot Paprika; 4 Ounces (About 4 Large) Cremini or Button Mushrooms, Roughly Chopped; 1/2 Cup Vegetable Stock; 2 Tablespoons Mirin; 1 Teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar; 1 1/2 Pounds Peeled and Diced Sweet Potatoes (About 3 Cups); 1 14-Ounce Can (1 1/2 Cups Cooked) Black Beans, Rinsed and Drained; 1/2 Teaspoon Salt, or to Taste

No Ratings

Black and orange to match the “traditional” colors of Halloween, this
dish is a touch spicy too, enhanced with a slightly devilish addition of
paprika and red pepper flakes. Toothsome wild rice makes it a stellar
sort of pilaf, but it can also be an easy, no-muss main dish as well,
thanks to the protein-packed black beans.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients

2 Cups Uncooked Wild Rice
3 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
1 Small Yellow Onion, Chopped
3 Large Cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Teaspoon Black Mustard Seeds
1/2 – 1 Small Chili Pepper, Finely Minced, or 1/4 – 3/4 Teaspoon Dried Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 Teaspoon Hot Paprika
4 Ounces (About 4 Large) Cremini or Button Mushrooms, Roughly Chopped
1/2 Cup Vegetable Stock
2 Tablespoons Mirin
1 Teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
1 1/2 Pounds Peeled and Diced Sweet Potatoes (About 3 Cups)
1 14-Ounce Can (1 1/2 Cups Cooked) Black Beans, Rinsed and Drained
1/2 Teaspoon Salt, or to Taste

Instructions

The most time-consuming part of this recipe is simply cooking the
rice, so it’s best to get that out of the way early. Heat about 2 quarts
of water in a medium-sized stock pot, and bring to a boil. Add the wild
rice, reduce the heat slightly, and simmer at a brisk bubble for 45 –
60 minutes, until the grains are beginning to split and are tender
enough to eat. Now, just like pasta, drain out the excess water, and set
side the cooked rice. The rice can be made a day or two in advance, as
long as it’s stored in an air-tight container in the fridge.
In the same stock pot (or one larger) melt the coconut oil and coat
the bottom of the pot with it before tossing in the chopped onion. Saute
over medium heat until softened and translucent; about 5 minutes. Add
the minced garlic, and cook for another 5 minutes or so, until
everything is starting to take on an amber hue around the edges. Stir in
the mustard seeds, pepper or pepper flakes, paprika, and chopped
mushrooms, stirring frequently and cooking for an additional 3 – 5
minutes, until the mushroom has reduced in size and the spices are
aromatic.
To prevent burning, quickly add in the stock, mirin, and vinegar,
stir well, and follow with the chunks of sweet potato. The liquid won’t
completely cover everything, so don’t panic. Turn down the heat to a
steady simmer, cover loosely with the lid, and keep stirring the mixture
every few minutes, until the sweet potatoes are fork-tender. This could
take anywhere from 20 – 30 minutes, so be patient. The excess liquid
should be mostly if not completely evaporated by now.
Mix in the cooked wild rice, cook over low heat for a few minutes to re-warm, and season with salt to taste. Serve immediately.

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 137Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 245mgCarbohydrates: 23gFiber: 3gSugar: 7gProtein: 4g

All nutritional information presented within this site are intended for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and any nutritional information on BitterSweetBlog.com should only be used as a general guideline. This information is provided as a courtesy and there is no guarantee that the information will be completely accurate. Even though I try to provide accurate nutritional information to the best of my ability, these figures should still be considered estimates.

October 28, 2011September 16, 2019

Hannah (BitterSweet)36 Comments

Perfect Pumpkins

Is it just another nasty side effect of growing older, or are pumpkin patches slowly losing their luster? No longer the exciting field trip out into an amber- and golden-hued land, far from reality, where the gourds sit proudly in tangled and vine-covered rows, but a meager errand. Hay rides serve only to incite a maddening barrage of sneezes and itches, and most disconcerting, the pumpkin selection is nothing to raise an eyebrow at.

Small to medium orange orbs of approximate roundness, more often than not, scarred with moldy spots, contagious-looking warts, or odd concave surfaces, most are not suited to carving even on a good day. Pick out something adequate in the pumpkin patch, only to discover the thickest inner walls ever created out of squash, or worse yet, empty seed pods that are no good for roasting. So many stumbling blocks, so few “perfect” pumpkins.

Dead-set on ending this cycle of disappointment once and for all, I set off to a brand new pumpkin patch this year in search of something better. Would you believe it, I found gourds there so impossibly ideal, it was a downright magical discovery. Flawlessly shaped, smooth, and glittering in the sunlight, I could overlook their diminutive size in favor of their other advantages. Cracking one open straight away to investigate the seed situation, the reality of what filled those thing shells was far sweeter…

Pumpkin candy! Forget those truly scary mass-produced sweets for Halloween and try making easy treats like these. Taking a page from my Shamrock Patties, these festive treats do indeed have real pumpkin in them, along with bright, pie-inspired spices. Should you get a hold of edible ink markers, you could even dress them up as jack-0-lanterns, complete with uniquely cute or creepy faces.

Turns out that the elusive perfect pumpkin may actually exist… In candy form, at least!

Yield: Make 3 – 4 Dozen Patties

Pumpkin Patties

No Ratings

Coated in a crisp cocoa butter shell, these festive treats do indeed have real pumpkin in them! The sweet candy center is infused with pie-inspired spices for that perfect autumnal taste.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Additional Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes

Ingredients

Patties:

1/4 Cup Pumpkin Puree
1 Tablespoon Vegan Butter, at Room Temperature
3 – 4 Cups Confectioner’s Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3/4 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cloves
Pinch Salt

Candy Coating:

1/4 Cup (2 Ounces) Food-Grade Cocoa Butter
1/4 Cup Confectioner’s Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Tomato Powder (Optional, for Color)
1/4 Teaspoon Turmeric (Optional, for Color)
Pinch Ground Cinnamon
Orange Colored Sugar, if Desired

Instructions

Place your pumpkin puree in the bowl of your food processor fitted with the paddle attachment, or in your food processor. Add the vegan butter and cream the two together until smooth. Incorporate 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar to start, along with the vanilla, spices, and salt. Start on a slow speed, or pulse to combine. The mixture will likely look like thick icing at this point, so add in another cup of confectioner’s sugar, and once again mix on low. You’re looking for it to become the consistency of soft cookie dough; malleable, but not gooey or drippy. If it still seems to be too loose, mix in up to an additional cup of the sugar, as needed.
Turn the pumpkin candy out onto a silicone baking mat or piece of parchment paper, and gently flatten it out to about 1/4 – 1/2 inch in thickness. To prevent sticking, either sprinkle on a very light dusting of confectioner’s sugar, or top it with a second mat or sheet of parchment before taking the rolling pin to it. Stash your candy disk in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before proceeding.
Once chilled, pull out a small pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter approximately 1-inch wide. Lay out a second mat or piece of parchment on top of a baking sheet. Cut out your pumpkins, and transfer them to the prepared sheet. Gather up the candy scraps, re-roll, and cut again, until you’ve used all of the dough. Should the dough become too soft and finicky to work with, just toss it back in the fridge for another 15 – 30 minutes, and try once more. Now, stash the whole sheet of cut centers in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before getting to work on the coating.
Place your cocoa butter in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 1 – 3 minutes, so that it completely liquefies. Meanwhile, mix together the remaining ingredients for the coating in a small dish, making sure that they’re thoroughly combined and that there are no clumps. Once the cocoa butter is melted, whisk in the dry ingredients, stirring vigorously to make sure that everything is completely dissolved into the liquified fat.
Pull out your semi-frozen candy centers, and dip each into the coating, one at a time, letting the excess drip off. Place them back on the silpat, and watch the coating set up right before your eyes. This top coat is thinner than regular chocolate, so you may wish to double-dip once the first layer has solidified. If using, quickly sprinkle the decorative sugar over the dipped patties as soon as you set them down.

Copycat, Copycat

The trouble with recreating classic candies that will strike a chord with both nostalgic adults and sweets-seeking kids, is that I was never really ate many of those original concoctions in the first place.

After every Halloween conquest,

my sister and I had a very specific ritual, painstakingly lining up our plunder on the living room floor, making what we would later call a “candy parade.” Sweets were grouped by type and content, in order of preference, of course. Once that was all done, and we both had time to admire each other’s take, the swapping would begin. Down to the end of the line we would both bound, eager to pawn off our least favorite treats in return for something a bit more palatable. Pretty much anything with nuts was out for me, as I had trouble with the concept of crunchy bits inside anything else at the time, so that severely limited the number of varieties I ever tried, to say the least.

And if there was a particular bar or patty that contained coconut?

Well, you could just forget about it; Neither of us wanted anything to do with those distasteful nuggets, and would resort to trading with a less discriminating candy enthusiast, such as our mom or dad. Sure, they usually only had hard candies to barter, which fell very low on the scale of candy value, but anything was better than coconut.

Oh, how things change.

The problem, it turned out, wasn’t the coconut itself, but that nauseatingly over-sweetened stuff, sticky with corn syrup and chemical preservatives. So I’ve never had a classic Mounds Bar, and definitely no Almond Joy‘s have ever passed my lips, but they intrigue me enough that I set out to try making something similar. The sad two or three almonds in an Almond Joy confuse me to no end, and while I still think it would be more apt to call it a Coconut Joy, I decided to go with the flow, and make my own version, with cashews instead.

Definitely no perfect copycat recipe, but one inspired by the classic, this chocolate bar is a delicious treat in its own right.

Yield: Makees 24 - 48 Candy Bars

Cashew (Coconut) Joy

No Ratings

Inspired by Almond Joy candy bars, this vegan copy cat version uses cashews instead.

Prep Time 30 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

3 Tablespoons Full-Fat Coconut Milk
3 Tablespoons Coconut Oil, Melted
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Confectioner’s Sugar
8 Ounces (About 2 2/3 Cups) Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
1/2 Cup Chopped, Toasted Cashews
1/2 Cup Whole Toasted Cashews
12 Ounces Rice Milk Chocolate or Semi-Sweet Chocolate, Finely Chopped

Instructions

In a medium bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, coconut oil, vanilla, and confectioner’s sugar. Once smooth, switch over to a spatula, and stir in the shredded coconut and chopped cashews, until fully incorporated and no dry patches in the mixture remain.
Transfer the mix into a lightly greased 8 x 8-inch square pan, and use the bottom of a measuring cup or drinking glass to press down and smooth out the top. Place the whole cashews at regular intervals in even lines down the pan, pressing them in gently. Move the pan in the freezer for at least 3 hours, until chilled and firm.
When you’re ready to enrobe your bars, melt down your chosen chocolate in the microwave, stirring thoroughly at 30 second intervals, until smooth. Set out a silicone baking mat or piece of parchment paper, and go retrieve the frozen coconut centers.
Slice into bars, and then carefully dip them into the chocolate. A few flakes of coconut may come off, but just fish them out of the pool of chocolate and continue. You may wish to store the pieces in the freezer until the moment that you’re ready to dip them, if them seem particularly fragile.
Tap off the excess chocolate, and place the bars on your silicone baking mat or parchment paper, and let cool until set. Store at room temperature in an air-tight container.

Treats Without Tricks

To the sugar-crazed youth of America, Halloween must be one of the most highly anticipated days of the year. After all, what could be better than dressing in some crazy garb, going out in the dark of night (or mid-afternoon), and getting free candy from any house you stop at? Kids have all the luck on this one magical evening, and the world is their oyster… But once you hit a certain age, this sort of parading about becomes unacceptable, and you are forced to hang up your treat bag for good.

However, even in my prime as an avid candy hunter, there was something about this whole trick-or-treating business that just didn’t sit right with me. After all, who made these rules about only using hermetically sealed, vacuum packed treats made from giant machines that ended up being about as tasty as chemically-treated plastic? Wouldn’t it be even better if these treats were actually… Well… A treat to receive, not just another brand name product found in every supermarket and gas station around? How I begged to hand out homemade candy to the youngsters in costumes in later years, watching them come and go while I remained home. But no, that simply wouldn’t be safe; We all know about the “dangers” of adulterated Halloween candy already, so attempting to pass out something homemade, with real ingredients?! Simply reprehensible!

So perhaps it’s the trick-or-treaters who are missing out, because I’ve decided that I’ll still make my own simple sweets this year, but I’ll only be treating my friends- You know, for the sake of “safety.” And the labor involved in making them is certainly nothing to fear, as these chocolate morsels are so quick and easy, you could decide to make them only an hour before guests arrive for a Halloween soirée.

Who doesn’t love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate? A great classic, based on a classic candy but reinvented with quality ingredients. Besides, when you make them yourself, they can be dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, and gluten-free. Don’t feel you need to stop there though, because any sort of nut butter would work just as well and perhaps even raise the bar in terms of sophistication. Think of almonds, hazelnuts, or pistachios instead, and this childhood favorite can morph into grown-up indulgence. But let’s say you have some picky guests coming over, or have to cater to someone with severe nut allergies. Never fear, because there are other options…

Simply rework the filling and you’ve got yourself a peppermint patty instead, containing absolutely no common allergens! An intensely minty center enrobed in a dark, decadent chocolate shell should satisfy even the most discerning chocolate or candy connoisseur. But if chocolate’s not your thing for one reason or another, no need to fret- You can also substitute carob chips instead!

This recipe will make one dozen peppermint patties and one dozen peanut butter cups, so if you only want one of the two for your party, go ahead and double the recipe for that filling.

Yield: Makes 24 Candies

Peanut Butter Cups and Peppermint Patties

No Ratings

This recipe will make one dozen peppermint patties and one dozen peanut butter cups, so if you only want one of the two for your party, go ahead and double the recipe for that filling.

Ingredients

1 Cup Chocolate Chips

Peanut Butter Cups:

1/2 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1/4 Cup Confectioner’s Sugar
1/8 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Peppermint Patties:

1/3 Cup Vegetable Shortening
2/3 Cup Confectioner’s Sugar
1/2 – 3/4 Teaspoon Peppermint Extract (depending on desired intensity)
Splash Vanilla Extract

Instructions

For both treats, begin by melting you chocolate in the microwave 30 – 60 seconds at a time, and stir thoroughly until completely smooth. Use a spoon, thin spatula, or paint brush to brush the melted chocolate over the insides of paper mini muffin cups, making sure to leave no holes and spread it as evenly as possible. No need to go crazy though, because even if the walls are too thin and break when removed from the wrapper, I doubt anyone will mind after they take a bite!
You will only use about 1/2 – 3/4 of the chocolate, so set the rest aside for later. Place the chocolate-covered papers into mini muffin tins so that they retain their shape, and let them cool and set completely. You can speed up this process by placing the tins in your refrigerator.
To make the peanut butter filling, just stir together the peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla until completely homogeneous and toss the mixture into the microwave for 30 – 45, just to warm it through and liquefy slightly. Give it another good stir to combine everything again, and drop dollops of the filling into your prepared chocolate cups. Be careful not to rub the sides too much so as not to melt the chocolate, and fill each up to about 2 – 3 mm from the top. Let the filling cool completely.
To make the peppermint filling, place the shortening into a bowl and microwave it briefly until just melted. Add in the sugar and both extracts and stir everything together until smooth. Drop the mixture into the cups as described above for the peanut butter cups, and let cool.
Finally, take out the remaining chocolate and melt it back down into a liquid state. Spoon the chocolate onto each of the filled cups and spread it out to the edges to fill in any gaps. Let it cool once again until set, and enjoy your ghoulish goodies with friends!