I love holidays, decorating our home and make treats for friends and family. I always pass out packaged candy to the ghosts and goblins that come to my door but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying homemade treats personally!
My sideboard is usually filled with cookies, candy, and other baked goods. Please don’t be impressed. I am a champ when it come to making goodies that take little time or effort on my part without sacrificing quality or the WOW factor. This includes my variety of cake mix cookies.
By adding food coloring to brownies, fudge, and cookies, I am able to create ghoulish delights, decorated with sprinkles featuring seasonal shapes. The sprinkle toppings available in the store make my baking even more fun. I’m not limited to orange & black sprinkles this year. There are pumpkins, ghosts, and even eyeballs. The eyeballs go especially well on top of vanilla fudge that has been colored to a glowing green.
I have included two more traditional autumn/Halloween treats. Popcorn Balls were a popular item in the middle of the last century. These would be made fresh a day before & passed out to all the neighborhood kids.
The other recipe is Barb’s Caramel Bars. This recipe was shared with me by our friend Barb Bellman. Barb sadly passed away a few years ago however, we remember her through the recipes she shared over the years.
Halloween Recipes
PopcornBalls
• 1 package (3 ounces) orange gelatin •1 cup sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• orange food coloring
• 7-8 quarts popped corn (about 1 1/2 cups un-popped)
Mix gelatin, sugar, corn syrup & a few drops of coloring in saucepan. Cook to a full rolling boil. Pour over popped corn, mixing with 2 forks to coat thoroughly. When cool enough to handle, butter palms & shape into 3-inch balls. Let dry a few hours. Wrap in plastic wrap & tie with colorful ribbon.
Barb’s Caramel Bars
• 1 package Kraft caramels
• ½ C milk
• 1 ½ cups chocolate chips
• 1 ½ cups flour
• 1 ½ cups oatmeal
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 ¼ cups brown sugar
• ¾ tsp baking soda
Preheat oven 350. Mix dry ingredients. Melt 1 ½ sticks margarine.
Add to dry ingredients. Blend well
Reserve 1 cup of this mixture. Press remaining mixture into bottom of
9×13” pan. Bake 10 minutes.
Melt caramels and milk in double boiler. Remove crust from oven.
Spread chocolate chips over baked crust. Spoon melted caramel mixture
evenly over this. Sprinkle remaining cup of dry mixture over entire top.
Bake an additional 10 minutes. Cool
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