Post by Tomspy77 on Nov 20, 2013 18:36:20 GMT -6
Making ‘Healthy’ Treats of Halloween Leftovers
Am I the only one with Halloween candy still hanging around the house?
At least, I did have Halloween candy hanging around the house. But we’re hosting Thanksgiving this year, and I intend to do it without four clearly labeled buckets of what was once Halloween candy and is now mostly wrappers sitting around. I sensed that interest in the Halloween candy had waned, and Hanukkah gelt and candy canes are just around the corner. I wanted the pumpkin-shaped Reese’s gone.
But the buckets weren’t empty, and I have one child who would both notice if her bucket disappeared, and would not be able to cope emotionally with the idea of throwing candy away. And there was some good stuff in there. My plan was to create an uber-treat out of all those remaining treats, and because I like to wrap my uber-treats in the illusion of health and well-being, I decided to adapt my current favorite cookie recipe: whole wheat oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from the Two Peas & Their Pod blog. Note how the resulting cookie name (Whole Wheat Leftover Halloween Candy Oatmeal Cookies) charmingly wraps the Halloween candy right up in between the healthier-sounding words “whole wheat” and “oatmeal.”
KJ Dell’Antonia
I asked each child to donate “anything that seems like it would taste good in a cookie” to the cause. Then I removed the Skittles (most eaters overruled the child who thought that might be tasty) and chopped up the lot. I got four cups of Kit Kats, Hershey’s and a little Snickers miscellany, enough to double the recipe and put another two cups in the freezer for next time. (One child put what little candy remained in her bucket into a labeled baggie in the pantry; the other three tossed the few sad gummy body parts and Tootsie Rolls.) The only adjustments I made to the recipe were to use half whole wheat pastry flour and half whole wheat flour (because I didn’t have enough of either) and to let the cookie dough sit for half an hour before baking, because the baking gurus at King Arthur flour suggest letting whole wheat recipes rest a bit before baking.
The result was a crowd-pleaser. I have no illusions about this being a wildly healthy choice — we might have added some whole grains to the next few days, but they were accompanied by a good lot of butter and sugar, and the truth is that we ate candy that we might otherwise have eventually thrown away. But we had a good time, and we bade farewell to the buckets without complaint. I think this might be a new Halloween tradition (and I think we might do it a little earlier next year).
At least, I did have Halloween candy hanging around the house. But we’re hosting Thanksgiving this year, and I intend to do it without four clearly labeled buckets of what was once Halloween candy and is now mostly wrappers sitting around. I sensed that interest in the Halloween candy had waned, and Hanukkah gelt and candy canes are just around the corner. I wanted the pumpkin-shaped Reese’s gone.
But the buckets weren’t empty, and I have one child who would both notice if her bucket disappeared, and would not be able to cope emotionally with the idea of throwing candy away. And there was some good stuff in there. My plan was to create an uber-treat out of all those remaining treats, and because I like to wrap my uber-treats in the illusion of health and well-being, I decided to adapt my current favorite cookie recipe: whole wheat oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from the Two Peas & Their Pod blog. Note how the resulting cookie name (Whole Wheat Leftover Halloween Candy Oatmeal Cookies) charmingly wraps the Halloween candy right up in between the healthier-sounding words “whole wheat” and “oatmeal.”
KJ Dell’Antonia
I asked each child to donate “anything that seems like it would taste good in a cookie” to the cause. Then I removed the Skittles (most eaters overruled the child who thought that might be tasty) and chopped up the lot. I got four cups of Kit Kats, Hershey’s and a little Snickers miscellany, enough to double the recipe and put another two cups in the freezer for next time. (One child put what little candy remained in her bucket into a labeled baggie in the pantry; the other three tossed the few sad gummy body parts and Tootsie Rolls.) The only adjustments I made to the recipe were to use half whole wheat pastry flour and half whole wheat flour (because I didn’t have enough of either) and to let the cookie dough sit for half an hour before baking, because the baking gurus at King Arthur flour suggest letting whole wheat recipes rest a bit before baking.
The result was a crowd-pleaser. I have no illusions about this being a wildly healthy choice — we might have added some whole grains to the next few days, but they were accompanied by a good lot of butter and sugar, and the truth is that we ate candy that we might otherwise have eventually thrown away. But we had a good time, and we bade farewell to the buckets without complaint. I think this might be a new Halloween tradition (and I think we might do it a little earlier next year).