Sweet on Halloween

Source: CandyStore.com.
It's expected that $2.7 billion will be spent on trick-or-treat candy this year.

Yes, that billion with a B!

A couple of weeks ago, an email from Candystore.com showed up in my inbox. (It was fortuitous timing: I needed to come up with a PEO program for October.)

They had evaluated sales data from all 50 states and put together an interactive map featuring favorite Halloween candies by state.

Kansas' most popular Halloween candy has changed since last year. Reece's Peanut Butter Cups have edged out M&Ms, which dropped to second place. Candystore.com says that 231,476 pounds of peanut butter cups were sold in Kansas, compared to 230,082 pounds of M&Ms.

You'd think with all the corn grown in Kansas, candy corn would be the obvious choice. However, our third-place winner was Dubble Bubble Gum at 159,092 pounds. (I find it hard to believe, but that's what the website says.)

On this Halloween, we're headed to Manhattan to trick or treat with a couple of cute butterflies. I am guessing they aren't going to want to cover up their beautiful costumes with coats. Let's hope for stretchy wings! I remember one Halloween when it snowed so much that Jill's and Brent's Halloween excursion was curtailed to Grandma and Grandpa's house 2 miles away.

Now that our neighborhood children have all grown up, we don't have trick or treaters on the County Line anyway. Actually, we never have had many small visitors on October 31.

I grew up trick or treating in the country, but most of Stafford's rural kids just went to town for the holiday. I was so disappointed the first year we were married. I had my bowl of treats and my porch light was on. I waited. And waited. And waited. No one ever came.

(Photo taken June 26, 2011, at the closing of Byers UMC)

When I was a child, our little country church - Byers United Methodist Church - trick or treated for UNICEF.  At first glance, it may seem sacrilegious to mention Halloween and church in the same breath. We ghosts and goblins had small milk cartons decorated with the UNICEF logo. As we collected our sweet treats, people would drop coins for UNICEF through the crudely-cut slots at the top of the milk carton.

Some of us would stay in Byers and go door-to-door. I always wanted to go on the northwesterly country route by car so I could put one of my Grandma Neelly's homemade popcorn balls in my goody sack.

I learned a lot about myself at Halloween. As a chubby princess, I declared I would never wear high heels again. My Dad proclaimed that he wanted a recording of that bold statement. But as it has turned out, I do prefer flats.

Another year, I learned that a computer made from a large box is tough to cram into the back seat of a car, especially when you're wearing it. (I wish I had a photo of it.) I was apparently ahead of my time. I didn't really work on a computer until journalism classes at K-State. But they were evidently in the news, since I decided to craft my own from a cardboard box that year. In hindsight, it would have been a better costume for walking the streets of Byers. But then I wouldn't have had the tale to tell, I suppose ... or Grandma's popcorn ball!

Our two always started the evening trick or treating in the country before meeting up with friends in town.
I think they missed their calling. They should have been actors. (These photos probably aren't politically correct anymore. But they make me smile, and they were done in good fun back before I even thought about such things.)

The Halloween candies are already being edged out in the big box stores as the merchandisers make way for Christmas goodies. Sometimes, you can find seasonal candy on sale the day after the holiday. Candy prices seem to be high to me this year, so if you can score a bag of discount candy, you could make one of these tried-and-true treats, tested on The County Line. (Does anyone else find it depressing that all prices seem to go up ... except farm commodities?)

Happy Halloween!

Milky Way Blondies

Peanut Butter Cup Banana Bread

 Scarecrow Bars

Butterfinger Blondies

 Peanut Butter Fluffernut Blondies

Fall Harvest Snack Mix

 

 Monster Cookie Bars

Sweets for Your Sweet: Another Valentine Treat

They may use a cake mix as a base, but these Caramel Chip Bars are more candy than cake or cookie. For several years, I've made this treat as part of my Christmas candy assortment. But they are also perfect to say "Happy Valentine's Day" to the special people in your life.

Stuffed full of semi-sweet chocolate bits, white chocolate chips and Heath brickle in a cake mix base, the bars are made even more decadent with a caramel layer.

Are they on any diet plan? Absolutely not. But they are the perfect way to say Happy Valentine's Day to someone special, and they're much tastier than any heart-shaped box of candy. I guarantee it. 

Caramel Chip Bars

1/2 cup butter (no substitutes)
32 caramels, unwrapped, or 1 bag caramel bits
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 cups miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup vanilla or white chips
1/2 cup Heath brickle chips

Note: The caramel bits are often found in the aisle with the chocolate chips.

In large saucepan, combine butter, caramel and condensed milk; cook and stir over medium-low heat until smooth. You may also use the microwave, taking care not to burn the mixture, by heating at 70 percent power, stirring after every minute. Cool.

In a mixing bowl, combine cake mix, oil and eggs; mix well. Stir in chips and brickle. Dough will be very stiff. Press 3/4 into a greased 9- by 13-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Place on wire rack for 10 minutes. Pour caramel mixture over crust. Drop remaining dough by spoonfuls onto caramel layer. Bake for 25 to 30 additional minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes; run a knife around edges of pan. Cool 40 minutes longer; cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. Cut into small pieces to serve.

Don't miss yesterday's sweet treat for the holiday, Decadent Chocolate Torte.

Love can be sweet. It also has its tart moments. So what better way to celebrate a Valentine's breakfast than with a coffee cake that combines both those elements? Add this Cranberry Apple Coffee Cake to your Valentine's Day breakfast table. It has some whole wheat flour and fruit, so there are some redeeming ingredients, right? Enjoy!

Valentine Treat 2: Cake Balls

I know you're not supposed to do things just because "everyone else" is doing them. But, it's hard to ignore the Cake Pop craze. There's a cookbook featuring Cake Pops. The cover of my December/January issue of Taste of Home's Simple and Delicious showed 10 versions of Cake Pops. A bunch of cooking blogs have been singing the praises of Cake Pops and Cake Balls.

So before Christmas, I joined the band wagon and tried them, too. One of the reasons I was dragging my feet was that I really don't like canned frosting. All the recipes I was seeing featured a can of frosting. I am a self-admitted frosting snob. So when I finally saw a recipe that used homemade icing, I was sold. (I found the recipe for using the homemade frosting at The Kitchen is My Playground blog.)

Four years ago, a blogger named Bakerella first posted a photo and recipe for cake pops. As she reminisced in her February 1, 2012, blog post, she had no idea this simple little idea would take on a life of its own (and lead to appearances on Martha Stewart, with the Pioneer Woman, on the Today Show and plenty of others.) Bakerella now has her own bakeware and clothing line. She has a whole following of people called Pop Stars who try to top one another with phenomenal decorations and designs.

And it was all born from a little ball of cake and frosting on a stick.

I made cake balls - sans lollipop stick - for Christmas and then decorated some for Valentine's Day, too. Mine aren't nearly as fancy as those made by Pop Stars across the world. But they aren't bad for a Kansas farm wife, I guess.

They'd be a perfect treat for your Valentine, too! Enjoy!

White ones are Cake Balls; Chocolate ones are Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Cake Balls

1 baked 9 X 13 cake (or equivalent of homemade cake recipe)
1 to 1 1/2 cups vanilla frosting (canned or your own)
1 lb. vanilla candy melts, any color
About 2 tbsp. shortening (I didn't use)
Larger sprinkles for decorating

Crumble cake into a large bowl, working it into small crumbs. Add frosting and mix until well combined. Shape into 1-inch balls, using about 1 tablespoon of the cake mixture per fall. Set aside on waxed paper. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 1 hour or place in freezer for about 15 minutes.

Notes: I used a homemade white cake. Since this recipe is for a sheet cake, I estimated how much of the cake to use and Randy gladly consumed the leftovers. I also used homemade icing, which I'd flavored with almond flavoring (Use the two-layer cake frosting recipe also attached to the white cake post.) When I make these cake balls again, I will just use 1 cup of the icing. I probably added too much. If you use a drier cake made from a cake mix, it might require more of the frosting. Just use your own judgment.

In a small bowl, melt candy melts and shortening (if desired) together in the microwave per candy melt instructions (typically 30 second intervals, stirring in between). Use a fork to dip each cake ball in the candy coating, letting excess coating dip off back into the bowl. Place on waxed paper. Sprinkle with sprinkles or place larger decorations on the coated balls. Let stand for coating to set up.

Note: I would just melt a portion of the candy melts and the shortening at one time. Almond bark can seize up when moisture or part of the cake ball falls off into the melted candy. So if you just work with a little bit at a time, you don't ruin the whole pot of almond bark. Can you tell that may have happened to me?

The original recipe said you could add rainbow sprinkles to the cake mixture. I didn't want to have that texture, but it would make it pretty inside. That blogger said she kept pouring them in and stirring until the mixture looked "confetti-ish." So, use your own judgment if you want to go with sprinkles.