The other day, Melissa (Smells Like Brownies) asked me if I wanted to help her make Halloween candy bark. Um – YES. Obviously. I mean – I’m not a crazy person.
Turns out, it is incredibly easy. Melt around 2 cups of chocolate, spread it on a silpat or parchment paper, sprinkle and press candy into it, chill, and done. What a great way to use up extra candy!
You can really use anything here – any kind of chocolate, any kind of candy. We used semi-sweet chocolate and reese’s, tootsie rolls, m&ms, white chocolate chips, and heath bits.
This month’s Food and Flix selection was Hocus Pocus, hosted by The Lawyer’s Cookbook – a perfect flick for Halloween! This movie came out when I was 8 years old, and I loved it. I hadn’t seen it in years, and it was interesting going back and watching it as an adult – I still found it to be a lot of fun. I also noticed that the director was Kenny Ortega – aka the director of High School Musical, ha! My favorite character is definitely Sarah Jessica Parker, she is so goofy and I love her singing in this film. Amok! Amok! Amok!
Anywho, I had been wanting to make candy corn themed jello shots for a while, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity! (Although, I despise actual candy corn – yuck.) I didn’t like a lot of the recipes out there using orange and lemon jello, the flavors just didn’t seem right to me. So I opted to start with a white liquor (Rumchata) and get my colors with food dye. I added in some butterscotch schnapps for extra deliciousness, too. I used equal amounts of each color, but that resulted in a really big white layer, so I have adjusted the amounts in the recipe below to better represent the appearance candy corn. (more…)
I’m about to get all raw food, vegan, and healthy on you. If those words make you cringe, don’t worry – these things are addictively delicious no matter what diet you follow! Let’s talk about dates – they are naturally super sweet and packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. They are also low calorie compared to processed sweets. In other words, they are nature’s guilt-free candy. Now let’s talk about Barhi dates. Oh. My. Gosh. These dates have a really short season and can be hard to find (I order them from here), but they are totally worth the hunt. They taste like butterscotch candy or caramel, just on their own! There is seriously a world of difference between Barhi and other dates, believe me. And in this recipe? Killer.
Now that we’ve established that you should totally use Barhi dates because they are way more delicious than any other kind, what else do you need to make these caramels? Tahini, coconut oil, cardamom, and that’s it! Blend it all up in a food processor and press into a lined pan. I had trouble getting all the coconut oil to incorporate, which didn’t make any difference taste-wise, but made them less pretty. Sprinkle liberally with sea salt and freeze until firm.
Once they are firm, cut them into little squares and that’s it! You have to keep them in the freezer so that they stay firm, but that’s not so much to ask, is it? They are rich, sweet, and complex with the flavors of caramel, tahini, cardamom, and coconut coming together, and the sea salt just takes it over the top. Good for you, delicious, fits any diet, and makes great gifts – why are you not making these yet? Get on it!
Raw Tahini Date Salted Caramels
adapted from The Kitchn
*I made double
1 cup pitted dates (Barhi highly recommended)
1/2 cup tahini
2 tbsp coconut oil (room temperature)
1/2 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
1/8 tsp fleur de sel or other finishing salt
Combine the dates, tahini, coconut oil, and cardamom in a blender or food processor. You should have a very smooth, creamy, and thick paste.
Transfer the mixture to a parchment-lined loaf pan (or another equivalent container) and use a spatula to press it down evenly. Sprinkle with salt.
Freeze until firm. Remove from the pan and cut into bite-size pieces.
Store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to a month.
In the last post I talked about where we went to eat on Valentine’s Day. Now I want to tell you about what I did for Jasper leading up to V-Day. I saw a really cute idea online to get 14 small presents to give to him each day of February leading up to V-Day, along with notes that had cute puns about the gifts. I’m not sure if he thought it was as cute as I did, but here they are:
1 – orange crush soda with “I’ve got a “Crush” on you!”
2 – gummy bears with “Life would be un”bear”able without you!”
I hosted this month at Food ‘n Flix and chose Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for my inspiration (see the announcement post here). One of my favorite childhood movies, Willy Wonka is full of fun, wonder, and tasty looking creations (the snozberries taste like snozberries!) – and what better time for a sugar fest than the holidays?! (more…)
What, you may ask, is “Rainbow Booze”? This is what a call all the fun, fruity, and candy-like alcoholic recipes that I made for a recent party (okay, not that recent – I am really behind on this post…) I had been wanting to try out these things for awhile, but not by myself, so I hosted a party and let the taste testing begin!
My favorite recipe was probably the Spiked Rainbow Jello Mold. I just love alcoholic jello, I don’t know why.
All you need is six boxes of Jello in rainbow colors, some unflavored gelatine, sweetened condensed milk (optional – only to make the jello more opaque), and some very cold alcohol. I think flavored rum is the best way to go because it has the least alcohol taste. I used coconut rum, but you can use whatever you like. (Full recipe below.)
Next up were two candy based concoctions – Gummy Bears infused with Rum, and Vodka infused with Jolly Ranchers. (more…)
