Lifestyle
7 Fruit Based Candies to Make for Halloween Trick or Treat
Halloween is all about the candy and chocolate. People want toffee apples, chocolates, gummy sweets, and more. What they don’t want are fruit and vegetables.
The problem for many parents is the unhealthy mixture of candy that children come home with. They have buckets full of all sorts that children just want to eat all in one go. After all, children don’t understand the bad that candy offers and only think of the tasty, sugary goodness.
While you want your children to eat healthily, you want them to have fun. It’s important that they feel like they fit in. You don’t want to end up with a child that has “those parents” or be the house that nobody turns up to because you’re known for boring, healthy treats.
So, it’s time to make your candies healthy but tastes for Halloween trick or treat this year. Here are seven fruit based candies that you’ll want to create.
Apple Cider Doughnuts
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Let’s start with the doughnuts. These tend to be popular Halloween treats. Rather than “bobbing for apples,” parents can tie sugar doughnuts to some string and get their kids to try to eat them without using hands. It’s fun, messy, and silly.
It’s also unhealthy when you consider the sugar and additives that go into doughnuts. Well, you can make your own instead. Nobody will realize that you’ve stepped away from the store and create your own unless you tell them. They will, however, want to know where you got them from!
You may be surprised at the idea of putting apple cider into your doughnuts. The cider helps to add a more acidity nature that creates extremely tender doughnuts.
These aren’t going to be your healthiest options of fruit-based candies on the list, but they are worth creating.
Ingredients:
1 cup of sugar
5tbsp butter sat at room temperature
2 eggs, sat a room temperature
3 ½ cups of all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out the doughnut dough
1 1/4tsp salt
2tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1 1/2tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
½ cup of buttermilk, preferably low-fat
1/3 cup of apple cider, boiled
1tbsp vanilla extract
Oil for frying
Cinnamon sugar (made by mixing 3tbsp cinnamon with 1 1/2cups of sugar)
Note: If you don’t want to create cinnamon sugar, you can opt for confectioner’s sugar
Method:
Whisk the butter and sugar together in a bowl until fluffy and pale
Add in the eggs one at a time and meat together again
In a separate bowl whisk the flour, baking powder & soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together, and then put to one side
Pour the buttermilk, cider, and vanilla into the sugar and butter mixture and combine well; it will likely look curdled at first, but that’s okay
Add in the flour mixture, combining until it’s just moistened fully
Dust a wax paper lined baking sheet with some flour and turned the dough onto it, gently patting to 3/4in thickness
Sprinkle with a little extra flour and wrap in cling film, and then place in the freezer for 10 minutes
Remove from the freezer and cut 18 doughnuts with a biscuit cutter, placing the doughnuts onto a second lined and floured baking sheet
Place back in the freezer for 5 minutes
Fill a pot with 3ins of oil and heat to 370F
Drop your doughnuts into the oil and cook until browned on one side, flipping and repeating on the other side
Continue until all the doughnuts are done, placing each one on a plate with paper towels on the bottom to soak up the excess oils
Once your doughnuts are cool, you’ll want to sprinkle them with your cinnamon sugar and serve
These are best served right away.
Opt for pre-boiled apple cider if you don’t want to boil your own. You can get some from some World Food stores. You can boil your own by simmering it for about 25 minutes. It’s not going to be quite as good made yourself.
Banana Ghouls
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Sometimes you can have fun with Halloween fruit treats that are blatantly healthy. It’s the thought and fun that goes into them. You may be surprised to hear that some kids don’t care if they eat healthy treats instead of candies. They can enjoy bananas as a treat because of all the natural sugars in them.
Banana ghouls are a must, even if you’re just creating them for your kids. You only need some bananas and chocolate chips to make these complete. You can opt for some chocolate buttons too, but they’re not necessary.
Chop your bananas in half and use three chocolate chips (or two chips and a button) for the ghoul’s face. Turn your bananas, so the flat part is at the bottom and add two chips side by side at the top for the eyes. The third chip or the button is added just under the eyes in the middle for the mouth.
You get two ghouls per banana. You just need to half the number of bananas for the number of people you’ll be serving to.
Make the bananas portable by wrapping them in some cling film after you’ve made them. You can also put them in the freezer to help them stay solid while the kids are on their treat or treating rounds.
You can also turn these into ice pops. Melt some white chocolate for this and use popsicle sticks into the bottom of the bananas. Dip the bananas into the white chocolate, covering the whole fruit, and then quickly add the chocolate chip eyes and mouth. Lay on a lined baking sheet and put your frozen bananas into the freezer.
These are known as Boo-Nana Pops.
Don’t worry if you’re worried about the cost of bananas. You can serve the banana ghouls with the next fruit based “candy.”
Mini Orange Pumpkins
This is one of the easiest “candies” that you’ll make. It’s not technically a candy since it involves nothing refined. You’re just using a fruit and a vegetable to create the yummy goodness. The parents on the trick or treat round will adore you for this healthy option, and kids just love the thought you’ve put into it.
You’ll need some satsuma or tangerine oranges. You just want to make sure they’re small and easy to handle.
Peel the oranges but leave the segments together. They’re your mini pumpkins.
Finish them off with celery stalks chopped into the small stick. You put the mini stalk into the middle of the orange, so it looks like the green stem of the pumpkin.
It’s up to you what you do with your oranges from there. You can add some chocolate around the sides if you’d like to create a ghoul’s face, but you don’t have to.
If you’re worried about transporting the oranges while trick or treating, you can always use a knife to cut a small hole out of the orange skin at the top. You can then stick the celery through it, and the rest of the orange is still covered.
These with a plate full of banana ghouls are excellent for Halloween parties. Kids will love going back up for more, and parents just won’t be able to say no!
Candy Corn Cups
Candy corn isn’t the most popular type of candy at Halloween, but it is one of the most popular. It’s time to create a fruit-based option at home. You’ll not just make parents happy with the healthier alternative, but kids will think that they’re getting something more than candy corn. These cups are also easy to carry around while the kids are out trick or treating.
Ingredients:
Bite-sized chunks of pineapple
Bite-sized chunks of oranges
Whipped cream of choice
Candy corn
Method:
Get enough cups for the kids and layer with the pineapple
Add the oranges and top with the whipped cream
Finish off with a couple of candy corn per cup
You’ll want to put the cups in the fridge until you’re ready for them. You’ll want to have a second person to help make sure you have enough out of the fridge for each person at the door. Don’t forget to get some plastic forks or spoons. Some kids will want to eat the candy corn cups while they go.
This is an excellent option for parents of the kids. Let them have something to eat while the kids run door to door in their costumes. The parents will love you forever!
Triple Dipped S’mores Apples
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What could be better than smores in the fall? How about mixing apples with smores? These treats are much more like candies than the others on the list. They will go down perfectly on the street, and you’ll have expectations for more next year. They also make excellent party options when you throw your annual Halloween bash.
Ingredients:
6 Granny Smith apples
2tbsp butter
1 bag of large marshmallows
10oz of milk chocolate chips
2 cups of crushed graham crackers
Method:
Remove the apple stems and skewer them whole
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add in the marshmallows, stirring until the marshmallows completely melt
Dip each apple into the melted marshmallow one at a time and then place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper
Place all the apples in the fridge for about 15 minutes, until they set
Melt the chocolate chips
Dip the apples into the chocolate, so the chocolate covers about two-thirds of the apple
Dip in the graham crackers, coating evenly
Place back in the fridge for at least 15 minutes
This is like a sticky toffee apple without the toffee or caramel. It’s a fun dessert for the kids, and the parents won’t be too annoyed at the use of sugars. In fact, they may just want to indulge themselves. Make sure you use disposable skewers, otherwise you will lose them during the trick or treating!
Strawberry Ghouls
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Instead of making banana ghouls, why not make something a little easier to transport? These are also the type of “candies” that kids will eat on the way round as they trick or treat.
You just need a bucket of strawberries, some melted white chocolate, and chocolate chips. Do the same that you would with the Boo-Nana Pops above. You don’t need the popsicle sticks for this one. The fun with strawberry ghouls is that you can gobble them with your fingers.
You can use whole strawberries for this, or you can opt for half strawberries to create more on a budget.
Monster Mouths
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Monster mouths are the type of “candies” that kids don’t realize they need or want until they see them. They’re just apple slices, peanut butter, and mini marshmallows. You will want to use a little lemon juice on the apple slices to prevent them browning.
Red delicious apples or other deep red ones will work better. You want the redness for lips of the monster. Smear a little peanut butter on both apple slices, not worrying if you drip a little over the skinned part of the apple.
Add a few mini marshmallows across one of the apple slices and then top with the second. Sit them so the skin is at the front and the marshmallows look like the teeth of the monster.
You can wrap them in some cling film to make them easy to transport around. If you’re having a party then just lay them out on a plate.
Halloween Can Be Healthy
It’s time to create something delicious, healthy, but sweet at the same time. Kids want candy, but parents want to get rid of some of the refined sugars. With your fruit-based candies, parents will encourage their kids to knock on your door every year.
