Trick or treat?

Ohhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhh- are you feeling a little spooked in anticipation of ghouls, ghosts and witches paying you a visit on Saturday evening? If so, I have just the thing to ward them away with no hint of a trick or a curse being left in their wake! Read on.....

Halloween comes just once a year, and despite all the protestations of Americanism and commercialism etc, I think that it is a jolly good chance to have some good old-fashioned fun!

Having recently lived in the good, ol US of A, I can vouch that the Halloween I spent there was absolutely  great! Goblins and monsters everywhere I looked that day- on the streets, in the parks, in the shops.

I am lucky in that parents of small children residing in the road where currently we live collectively organise trick or treating in a very sensible way. Signs are distributed to all houses a few nights before, and if you want to take part in the fun, you just stick the sign on your front door to indicate that trick or treaters are welcome!

You may recall in my previous blog, I presented this image with very little explanation.

Clearly, the more astute of you out there in blogland wouldn't have had any difficulty working out that what was pictured were the ingredients for toffee apples! Would you like to know how to make them?  Read on!

First of all, for the quantities of ingredients that I am going to give you, you need 14-16 small apples (ideally acquired from a farm-shop where they are currently in abundance).

Wash them thoroughly and then insert lolly-pop sticks. I bought these in a packet of 100 from my local Lakeland shop, but you can also get them from craft shops.

The next step is to make the toffee. For this you will need:

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  750 grams of demerara sugar
  
  
  
• 
  
  75 grams of unsalted butter
  
  
  
• 
  
  2 teaspoons of vinegar
  
  
  
• 
  
  2 tablespoons of golden-syrup
  
  
  
• 
  
  175 mls of water
  
  
  

Put all the ingredients in a heavy-based saucepan and stir until they have melted.

Bring to the boil and then let it boil for 5-7 minutes without stirring.

You can test if it is ready or not by putting a tiny spoonful into a cup of cold water. The toffee will harden immediately when ready.

While you are waiting for the toffee to boil, line a tray or dish with foil and lightly grease with butter.

Okay- now the fun part.

When the toffee is ready, take it off the stove and place on a protected flat surface on your worktop. Then dip your apples, ensuring that they are thoroughly, well and truly and wonderfully covered with the delicious golden toffee.

They should look something like this:

Here's a close-up view. Mmmmmm- yummy!

Leave them to set- mine only took about 10 minutes to set and cool down.

Another fun bit comes next and that is the wrapping. Be as creative as you like! Now, that won't be hard for all you wonderfully clever crafty-types.

I used cellophane (purchased from the local florist shop- I simply could not find it anywhere else, despite searching high and low!) and Halloween-coloured ribbons!

Wrappity, wrap, tie, tie. For me, this part was the most fun and I must admit, the results were very pleasing!

What do you think?

Here they are all finished and packed into my Halloween basket waiting for those tricksters to come a knocking! Not having any children of my own, I love being able to be involved somehow in those fun things that I miss out on. Gosh, I hope the parents won't mind their children having toffee apples- at least they are organic apples and the toffee is chemical and additive-free!

 Last year I tried to encourage healthy habits as well as treats so gave out clementines with the sweets. Needless to say, I am not sure that the children felt the same way. I guess that not suprisingly, they were just interested in the sweets!

Don't they look good, all lined up on my kitchen bench? So easy to make too! Why not have a go yourself?

So, have a great Halloween and remember it is all just a bit of fun.

Bye for now,
Lucy