We've been busy bees in the kitchen coming up with seven spookily delicious treats with a healthy honey twist, that'll delight both adults and kids.
From simple and quick Jack O'Lantern Fruit, and Ghost Chips; to a family fav - Honey Caramel Dipped Apples, we've got something for everyone.
So if you're looking for last minute ideas you can easily whip up in a few minutes, or some sneaky sugar free baked goods, we've got you covered.
Chocolate Strawberry Ghosts
This one is super simple and only requires two ingredients - Strawberries and chocolate! We've used googley eyes to give this snack a spooky feel (which need to be removed before eating), but you can use a food safe pen to draw eyes on, or add candy eyes from your local cake decorating store.
Simply melt your white chocolate in the microwave in short 30 second bursts and stirring well after each go. Or place a glass or metal bowl over a pot of simmering water, ensuring that the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water. White chocolate is less forgiving than dark and milk chocolate so watch this one carefully. Once the chocolate has started to melt you can just use the residual heat to melt the rest of the chocolate by gently stirring it.
If your chocolate seems a little thick you can add a small amount of vegetable oil to help thin it out to make dipping your fruit easier.
Setup a plate or oven tray with greaseproof paper and dip your strawberries in the chocolate and set on the tray. Once they're all dipped add your decorations and then place in the fridge for 15 minutes to set.
Chefs Tip: If you'd like to colour your chocolate, use oil based or powdered colouring, as standard liquid colouring will make the chocolate seize.
Jack O'Lantern Fruit
These are great for morning or afternoon tea, or added to lunch boxes for a fun treat. Or get your tamariki involved and let them draw their own design. Simply take a black felt pen or marker and draw on fun faces to mandarins or oranges.
Monster Mouths
The kids will absolutely adore these apple peanut butter honey monster mouths. This healthy Halloween snack is also way better than all the sugary Halloween sweets, so why not trick your child with a more healthy treat by serving these simple monster snacks.
Apples
Lemon juice
Peanut Butter
Manuka Honey
Mini Marshmallows
Quarter the apples, remove the core piece and sprinkle them with lemon juice so that they do not turn dark.
Mix the peanut butter and honey together in a 50/50 ratio. How much you used depends on how many apples you'd like to make and how thick you like your spread.
Cut the quarters into smaller slices, and put the honey peanut butter (about two teaspoons) onto each slice.
Then add a row of mini marshmallows across one apple slice, and sandwich two apple slices together. Press firmly until they stick and you have your teeth!
If you'd like to avoid using marshmallows you can add sliced strawberries as a tongue, and place slice bananas and blueberries on a toothpick and push in to the apples as eyes. Get creative and have fun with what you have on hand.
Ghost Chips
This is another super simple snack, and you can use whatever dip you like, from salsa, to guacamole, or sprinkle with different herbs or spices and eat them warm out of the oven for a crispy snack.
Simply take a flatbread or tortilla, and cut in to ghost shapes, or whatever spooky shape you'd like. Then lightly coat with oil and place on an oven tray in a single layer. Pop under a hot grill for a couple of minutes, then turn them over and cook for a further minute or so. Let them cool, and you've got yourself some fun crispy ghost chips ready for dipping.
Ghost Pancakes
These were another quick and fun treat that the kids loved. Great for breakfast or afternoon tea, or add them to your kids lunch boxes with their favourite toppings, of course our favourite topping is our delicious Kids Floral Honey.
We used our Simple 4 Ingredient Pancakes recipe and poured in enough batter to cover the fry pan. Then we used a ghost shaped cookie cutter to cut out the shapes.
We've added a Honey Buttercream to our ghost pancakes and coloured it green, you can use whatever colours you have on hand. This is a great refined sugar free frosting that is great for cakes and cupcakes, without the use of icing sugar. The tip is to use really cold butter from the fridge and cut it in to cubes so that it holds its shape, and to beat it for a could couple of minutes to make it nice and light and smooth.
Honey Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 1/2 cup COLD butter
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp raw honey
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 drops liquid food colouring
Fit standing mixer with the flat beater (if you don't have a standing mixer, you could use a hand mixer or food processor instead) and mixing bowl.
Add butter, honey, vanilla to the bowl and mix on low speed until the butter starts to soften. Increase speed and whip until creamed and it begins to have a lighter texture about 2-3 minutes. Stop mixer and scrape down frosting with a spatula.
Then simply ice your cooled pancakes with your frosting, and decorate as you like. Have fun, add sprinkles or chocolate chips for eyes, or coloured cachous balls. This is a fun activity to do with your little ones.
Monster Bars
These peanut butter rice bubble bars use all natural ingredients and no refined sugar. Such a win for this sugar laden celebration. This is a super simple one bowl 5 minute snack that's easy and fun to make.
1/2 cup natural peanut butter1/2 cup Manuka Honey
3 cups rice bubbles
Heat peanut butter and honey in small saucepan until warm or in microwave on low power for about 30 seconds. Then gently stir in the rice bubbles.
Line an 8x8 cake tin with baking paper. Pour in cereal mixture and firmly press into the tin. Freeze for an hour or refrigerate for 3-4 hours, and then cut into 12 bars. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
These are good to go as is, or have fun and decorate them. We dipped ours in white chocolate and added a smudge of green buttercream (see recipe above), and googley eyes.
Honey Caramel Dipped Apples
These are a firm favourite with our tamariki, as the caramel is softer than the traditional sugar based candy apple coating, so it's easier for little ones to eat. And it's healthier, being sweetened with our delicious honey, it's another refined sugar free treat.
1 cup of thickened cream
1 cup Manuka Honey
6 Medium apples (chilled in the fridge)
In a large saucepan, combine the cream and honey over medium heat. You must watch this carefully as the cream expands a lot when it boils, and can happen quite suddenly.
Bring the cream to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until a golden caramel colour. Remove from heat and allow to thicken 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, insert a wooden ice block stick into the core of each apple (or we used washed twigs from our fruit trees). Dip apples in caramel mixture, rolling to coat evenly. Place on baking paper and then leave in the fridge to set.
Chefs Tip: The caramel is a little thinner than you may be used to. If it starts to pool too much at the bottom of the apple, wait a few minutes for the caramel to cool a bit before dipping more. You can also scrape up extra caramel, reheat it and dip again.
You can even skip the sticks, and simple slice your apple and dip each slice in the caramel.