Boo! Gluten Free Halloween Crackers

I've decided crackers are even more fun to make than cookies :)

I used black quinoa in these crackers, hoping the crackers would be dark or black for a spooky Halloween look. That didn't happen, but you can see the black flecks in there:

Lesson learned: if you decide to make crackers that spell something (Happy Birthday? Merry Christmas? Happy New Year? Congratulations?) I recommend large cookie cutters. These were tiny and somewhat tedious to break out. Large cookie cutters are MUCH easier. These were fun, and cute, but I wouldn't do it again. Large letters. Trust me.

Here is what they look like before baking. I dug through my cookie cutters and also found cats and owls:

You bake the cookies just like that- slide the whole piece of parchment paper on the cookie tray and bake. Break out the crackers after they cool:

And the best part, you get to eat the scrap pieces from in between: 

Then surprise your little goblins:

Hope this gives you some fun gluten free ideas for future holidays/birthdays/parties. Simply use your favorite gluten free cracker recipe. There are a couple of gluten free cracker recipes on this blog, and you can Google for others. Crackers are SUPER easy to make!

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Allergy-friendly Candy Apples

This recipe is linked to Wellness Weekends and Allergy-Friendly Fridays. 

Be sure to visit those pages for more yummy Halloween treats!

Hi everyone! I meant to post this recipe last week. I was traveling, and I thought I'd done well in planning ahead to write this post on the road. I made the apples early, took photos, loaded all of the photos onto my laptop, and edited photos while on the plane. Perfect! Now I just had to add the recipes and upload to the blog...

Guess what I forgot at home???

Yup. The recipes.

Oops!

But now I'm back, and here you go...

Here are recipes for THREE versions of candy apples. No gluten, corn, soy, dairy, or refined sugar. Bonus: they are RAW vegan! Yes, raw vegan treats for Fall : ) Who needs Halloween candy? These taste MUCH better- and they are better for you.

As I was thinking about writing this post, I came across some pre-made candy apples in Publix (our local grocery store).

Here are the ingredients: 

Obviously these are not an option for anyone with a corn allergy, or kids who may be sensitive to artificial flavors or dyes.

There were also caramel apples: 

Ingredients: 

Corn syrup, refined sugar, dairy PLUS sugar, soy, more dairy (can you really call dipotassium phosphate "milk"?), more soy, even MORE soy, something unpronounceable, imitation vanilla- really, there is not any FOOD in here, except for the apples. And it contains three of the eight major allergens.

How about the chocolate turtle apples?

Ingredients:

Yeah. More of the same. 

So, now that you are convinced you probably do not want to feed this commercial, pre-packaged "food-like substance" to your family... here is an easy & healthy alternative.

I started with the biggest, prettiest Fuji apples I could find. You can use any variety of apple you like.

Note: next time I would choose the smallest apples I can find, not the largest. I was dazzled by the beautiful large apples in the store. But as I was making the apples, they were really too big and heavy, and they were much too big to eat. Each of these apples was enough for 2-4 people. Too big. But they were pretty : ) 

A smaller apple would be easier to handle (especially for kids) and it would also give you a better candy-coating-to-apple ratio.

OK, on to the recipes. I experimented with caramel, chocolate, and white chocolate apples. 

I used the "I Am the Best" Caramel Sauce recipe from Cafe Gratitude's I am Grateful (un)cookbook

Raw Vegan Caramel Apples

Ingredients

Apples

Lollipop or popsicle sticks

Caramel

1 cup macadamia nuts

1/2 teaspoon himalayan salt

1/4 cup raw almond milk

1/2 cup raw agave nectar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder

1/2-1 teaspoon yacon syrup

Method

Place all ingredients apart from the yacon syrup in high speed blender. Pulse or start on low and gradually increase the speed until you have achieved a smooth texture (you may need to add a little more almond milk).

Now blend in 1/2 teaspoon yacon syrup, slowly. Taste and add a little more yacon syrup if you like. Note: if you add too much yacon syrup, the color will change from golden to green!

Note: I added about 2 Tbsp melted raw cacao butter to this recipe in the hope that it would harden on the apple once it cooled. It did not harden as I'd hoped, and I also thought it changed the taste (it was still good, but it was much better without). I did not try it, but I think adding 1 Tbsp coconut butter to the recipe might have the "hardening" effect I was going for. So you might try that if you are feeling adventuresome. If you try it, I'd love to hear how it works out.

Insert a popsicle or lollipop stick and dip apples in caramel:

Sit on plate or bowl. This is where I'd hoped it would harden, but it never did (it was still yummy though)

Some of the caramel slid off, and I wound up with a thin coating of caramel, something like this:

Roll apple in topping of your choice, if desired. I used a coconut and pecan mixture left over from another recipe:

Next up: Chocolate apples. The chocolate part of this recipe is from Sarma's Living Raw Food (un)cookbook.

Raw Vegan Chocolate Apples

Ingredients
Apples
Lollipop or popsicle sticks

Chocolate coating
1 1/4 cups coconut oil, warmed to liquify
3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons raw cacao powder
3 1/2 Tablespoons maple syrup
Pinch of sea salt

Blend all chocolate ingredients until smooth and fully emulsified.

Dip apples in chocolate. Roll in topping, if desired. I used chopped almonds. This topping will harden even faster if you put it in the fridge.

Last one: White chocolate apples!

White Chocolate Candy Apples

Ingredients

Apples

Lollipop or popsicle sticks

White Chocolate (recipe from Lisa at Vegan Culinary Crusade)

1/2 cup melted raw cacao butter (place it in a bowl of hot water until it becomes liquid)
1 tsp vanilla bean (extract or powder)
1/4 cup raw agave syrup (if you keep it in the fridge give it some time on the counter to warm up so it won't cause the cacao butter to solidify too quickly).

Method
Stir everything together in a bowl.
Dip apples in white chocolate coating. Let cool to harden. It is OK to put in fridge, but do not put in freezer. The white chocolate coating is ok in the freezer, but frozen apples thaw out to be mush.
Note: I did not try it, but I think adding 1Tbsp coconut oil to this recipe would make a nice smooth coating that hardens. Let me know if you try that and how it turns out!

Enjoy your healthy, allergy-friendly candy apples! 

I'd love to hear which one you choose, and how it turns out.

Gluten Free Vegan Halloween Krispy Treats

The inspiration for this recipe was a bag of puffed millet that I wasn't quite sure what to do with. If you are not familiar with millet, you will be happy to know that it is a low-calorie, gluten free grain with nearly 10% protein. Millet is high in magnesium; magnesium is beneficial to cardiovascular health, and can help prevent muscle cramps and migraines. Millet is also high in B-vitamins, folate, iron and zinc. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I found this puffed millet is similar in texture to puffed rice. It is puffed and airy, but soft, not crispy. The only ingredient in the (Arrowhead Mills brand) cereal below is millet; nothing else.

The recipe below uses brown rice syrup instead of the marshmallows that are traditionally used in krispy treats. Why? Take a look:

The ingredients in Kraft marshmallows, large or small, are: corn syrup, sugar, modified food starch, dextrose, water, gelatin, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, artificial flavor, natural flavor, and blue #1.

Besides the corn, corn, and more corn, fake laboratory ingredients with names I can't pronounce, and artificial colors and flavors- I won't even go into how gelatin is rendered. You can Google it... it's pretty disgusting. Blech! I'm not even vegetarian, but gelatin is an ingredient I'd like to avoid.

Dried apricots and raisins sneak in a little extra nutrition in this recipe, in addition to adding Halloween color.

Allergy-Friendly Halloween Krispy Treats

Ingredients
2 cups puffed millet
1/2 cup cashew butter (click here for how to make your own)
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
Dash himalayan salt (optional)
Dried apricots, diced
Dried zante currants (or raisins)

Method
Add cashew butter and brown rice syrup to a large saucepan over low heat.

Stir until melted.

Add dash of salt, if using. Stir to mix.
Add puffed millet.

Stir until millet is well coated with syrup mixture.

Add diced dried apricots and currants. Stir to combine.

Drop large spoonfuls of millet-fruit mixture onto parchment paper and let cool.

The mixture is pretty hot at this point, so just drop it onto the parchment paper, don't worry about the shape.

When it is cool enough to handle, shape into balls (just roll between your palms).

Enjoy!

Bailey is such a good dog. Since he is so darn cute laying there watching me take photos of food, I thought I'd let him pose with the treats too : ) He just likes the attention, he doesn't even try to swipe a treat : )

This recipe is linked to Cybele Pascal's Allergy Friendly Friday. Click to check out the other great allergy friendly recipes and the rest of Cybele's blog for awesome gluten, dairy, and egg free recipes.