Tag: recipes

Top 10 Homemade Vegan Halloween Candy Recipes

Can you feel it in the air?

Though treats and decor have lined store shelves for months already, Halloween finally draws near. Amidst the costumes and pumpkin carving, haunted houses and hay rides, the call for candy remains irrepressible. Fear not: a little bit of creativity, patience, and kitchen witchcraft can yield a trove of homemade Halloween sweets.

The Allure of Crafting from Scratch

Creating your own vegan Halloween candies grants you complete control over the ingredients you use. This means you can bid farewell to mysterious chemicals and questionable additives, opting instead for wholesome components that align with your ethics. Whether it’s crafting gooey caramel, crafting rich chocolate truffles, or concocting chewy fruit-flavored treats, you hold the power to select organic, sustainable, and cruelty-free ingredients that cater to your palate and principles.

Moreover, the process of making candies from scratch can be far more gratifying than simply grabbing something pre-made. Make a whole event out of it by enlisting friends, family, and especially the kids! Together, you can mold spooky (or spoopy) shapes and embellish your candies with personal flair, making each one unique.

Summoning Sweet Splendor: Tips for Crafting Homemade Vegan Halloween Candies

As you embark on your candy-making adventure, consider these tips to ensure your creations are both tantalizing and vegan-friendly:

  1. Choose Plant-Based Alternatives: Swap out dairy for coconut milk, almond milk, or other plant-based alternatives in your recipes. There’s a wide array of vegan chocolates, caramels, and gummy ingredients available to bring your candy visions to life.
  2. Natural Food Coloring: Create captivating hues using natural food coloring derived from fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Beet juice, spirulina, and turmeric are just a few options to infuse your candies with enchanting colors.
  3. Mind the Gelatin: Gelatin is a common non-vegan ingredient found in many gummy candies. Opt for agar, a seaweed-based alternative, to achieve that chewy texture without compromising your values.
  4. Experiment with Extracts: Embrace the spirit of Halloween by experimenting with eerie and unexpected flavors. From pumpkin-spiced toffee to ghostly mint chocolates, let your imagination run wild.
  5. Engage the Senses: Elevate your candy-making experience by involving multiple senses. Consider incorporating aromatic spices, such as cinnamon and nutmeg, to evoke the essence of autumn and heighten the festive ambiance.

This Halloween season, embark on a journey that merges creativity, ethics, and indulgence by conjuring your very own treats, without any tricks involved. Don your apron, gather your cauldron of ingredients, and let the magic of homemade vegan candies cast a spell on your taste buds. Here are a few of my favorite recipes:

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Hannah (BitterSweet)5 Comments

Corn-ucopia

If you haven’t yet gotten your fill of fresh summer corn, it’s time to start shucking and husking, pronto. While you could make the case that corn has become season-less, a perennial staple in both the freezer aisle and canned goods section, the most advanced preservation technology still can’t capture the full bouquet of flavors, nor the sheer sensory experience, of sinking your teeth into a fresh, crisp row of sunny yellow kernels.

How Long Does Fresh Corn Keep?

Don’t wait another minute. Aside from dwindling harvests, timing is critical once you bring your haul back home. Sugars begin converting to starch the moment each ear is picked, making it more bland with every passing day. That’s why “fresh” corn in December doesn’t have the same magic as August; it’s already been in transit for who knows how long, shipped in from warmer climates on a slow boat.

Need More Ideas For Fresh Corn?

Make the most of your haul with these fool-proof recipes. From appetizers to desserts, classic to unconventional, there’s nothing that quality corn can’t do.

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Hannah (BitterSweet)2 Comments

No Cook? No Sweat

When it gets hot enough to bake cookies in the car, a considerable portion of the day is devoted to simply staying cool. Just flipping on the AC will never be an effective line of defense against this unstoppable foe, finding every crack in the foundation to slip right through. That’s assuming the increasing demands on electricity don’t cause power outages in the first place. Each summer is only getting hotter than the last, so we need better ways to stay cool.

Step Away From The Stove

The key is to generate as little heat as possible. There’s no need to adopt a fully raw diet, but who wants to eat a boiling vat of thick stew right now anyway? Still kissed from the chill of the fridge, no-cook recipes are the refreshing, re-invigorating ways to beat the heat.

Eat Well With Ease

Stay far away from the oven, put away that saute pan, and embrace a fresher approach to summertime meals. Fortunately, with such a wealth of incredible produce waiting in the markets, they don’t need extensive prep work to be transformed into unforgettable seasonal treats.

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Hannah (BitterSweet)4 Comments

Good Luck Potluck

Potlucks, both big and small, have the power to bring people together like nothing else. These communal feasts allow a true fusion of cultures, uniting culinary traditions to create a symphony of flavor on every plate. Unlike your average hosted dinner party or brunch gathering, it’s not just about the individual’s dining experience, but celebrating the full collective of flavors found within the community at large.

Beyond the food itself, potlucks allow an intangible magic to develop, fostering bonds and deepening relationships. These gatherings are not confined to rigid social structures or the formality of restaurant dining. Rather, they offer an intimate setting where the boundaries between host and guest blur into insignificance. It is within this egalitarian ambiance that strangers become friends, and acquaintances transform into confidants, all while savoring the fruits of their collective labor.

With that in mind, there are no wrong answers for the perennial question: What should I bring to a potluck? From the zesty chili that sets the palate ablaze to the velvety chocolate cake that seduces the sweet tooth, each dish tells a story, far more personal and revealing than a casual conversation. If you’re stumped, though, I do have a few foolproof suggestions.

What Makes a Good Potluck Dish?

To narrow down the options, my criteria for what goes on this list is more pragmatic than visionary. It’s always best to select a dish that:

  • Serves many, ideally 8 – 10 at minimum, or can be scaled up accordingly
  • Travels well, no matter the distance
  • Can sit at room temperature or is easy to reheat with minimal fuss
  • Quick and easy to prepare, because no one wants to spend any party stuck in the kitchen
  • Isn’t terribly messy to serve or eat

From snacks to desserts, here’s my cheat sheet for serving any group with style.

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Hannah (BitterSweet)6 Comments

Mucho Matzo

You know what’s the worst part about buying matzo meal for Passover?

Having it sit in the pantry for the rest of your life.

Okay, perhaps that’s a bit over-dramatic. Maybe you’re more organized than I am and would clear the shelves without needing to include all the contents in your final will.

The thing is, I just don’t love matzo in any form, aside from matzo toffee, perhaps. If we’re being honest, it tastes stale from the moment it comes off the factory line, with a gritty, chalky taste and texture that would be rejected by taste testers if Moses ever held a focus group on his new product.

Unfortunately, matzo meal is a necessary evil to enjoy the one redeeming dish of Passover: Matzo ball soup. If not for those tender, fluffy dumplings, I’d happily forget that the stuff even exists. Instead, I’ll do my Jewish duty of preparing the culinary highlight of the holiday, end up with a mostly full box of excess matzo meal, and either give it away via the Buy Nothing Project or unceremoniously dumping it out of frustration a few months later. Next year, like clockwork, the cycle will begin anew.

How To Use Leftover Matzo Meal

It’s time to stop wasting a potentially serviceable staple! This is more a reminder for myself, but if you’re in a similar situation, these are my best suggestions for using up matzo meal, beyond the predictable matzo ball soup.

  • Add it to plant-based meatballs, meat loaves, or burger patties for bulk, texture, and binding power.
  • Mix in herbs and spices to act as a seasoned breading for fried tofu or cauliflower.
  • Sweeten with granulated sugar and drizzle in melted vegan butter until it holds together when pressed; transfer to a springform pan and bake into a crust for cheesecake.
  • Create a pesadik version of cream of wheat by simmering 1 part matzo meal with 2 parts water for about 5 minutes, until thickened. Serve hot with maple syrup and cinnamon.
  • Toast in a dry skillet and use instead of pine nuts in pesto.

How To Make Matzo Meal

Save yourself from the dilemma of excess in the first place by making your own matzo meal from scratch, yielding just enough for its intended purpose.

  1. One sheet of matzo will create roughly 1/4 cup of matzo meal.
  2. Break up as many sheets as you need into smaller pieces and place them in your food processor with the “S” blade installed.
  3. Pulse until finely ground to about the consistency of coarse almond meal.
  4. Store in an airtight container in a cool place until ready to use.

With a little bit of creativity and craftiness, anything can be delicious. You could be a matzo lover or hater and still enjoy any of these alternate uses that give it a whole new life beyond the seder plate!

Hannah (BitterSweet)7 Comments