Halloween Treats?

[SweetErika]

I need to make some sort of Halloween or Fall treat for our playgroup on Wednesday, and I'm at a loss for ideas.

It needs to be egg-free or capable of taking an egg replacement and nut-free, as one of the kiddos in the group is deathly allergic to both of those things. Also, I don't have the time, skill or tools to do some kind of elaborately decorated cupcake, cookie, etc., so easy is kind of the name of the game.

Any ideas?

 

[fire_breeze]

I need to make some sort of Halloween or Fall treat for our playgroup on Wednesday, and I'm at a loss for ideas.

It needs to be egg-free or capable of taking an egg replacement and nut-free, as one of the kiddos in the group is deathly allergic to both of those things. Also, I don't have the time, skill or tools to do some kind of elaborately decorated cupcake, cookie, etc., so easy is kind of the name of the game.

Any ideas?

Most easy cakes/cupcakes will take egg replacements well, especially if it's just basic white or chocolate dough. It's often for fine pastry or complicated recipes in which egg substitute doesn't work.

Any treat can be Hallowe'en, it's all in the presentation (as in, add a plastic spider or two onto a dip, etc) and with some modification, you can whip out some ghoulish treats . Here are some ideas:

I don't know the age group or tastes, but a Pumpkin Fudge is relative simple to make and tastes quite good (albeit sweet). I always omit the nuts in my fudges, and I find that it tastes better.

I sometimes use this website for ideas when I am contracted to help cater parties. They are all usually so simple to make and some of them are pretty healthy too. Again, those that call for eggs, egg substitute works wonderfully.

Also, rice krispies squares are life savers for all allergies. If you buy Hallowe'en-y moulds, you can cut out the shapes, and voila. Instant treats. You can even use food colouring if you want to get creative. Just mix it into the melted goo before adding the cereal. Also, if you want, you can try varying the cereal, but why mess with a classic?

If you have time, candy apples are always a hit. To make it more manageable, quarter the apples, pierce them with the sticks and dip them that way in the caramel sauce. I always find that the one big apple is too much. Or, cube them, stick in tooth picks and you have bite sized candy apples.

Another treat to try, but may not work due to allergies, is to take those thick Oreo cookies and stick string liquorice to create spiders. Cut the candy into three inch stems, stick it into the cream, and you have spiders. If you want to make eyes, then dab dots of frosting. Alternatively, you can bake cookies (here's a great eggless recipe), let it cool, and make the sandwiches by placing frosting in between the two cookies. To make the cookies uniform in size, use a mini ice cream scoop, if you have one.
Or if you want something savoury, then use Ritz crackers, add cream cheese or some sort of spread that is safe, and use mini pretzel sticks as legs. Cheerios or sliced olives are perfect eyes.

Three other websites that I have bookmarks are this one (which has even healthy treats - and stuff that my veggie-phobic nephew loves) and this one. This one is also good (check out the sandwiches).

Hope it helps!

 

[SweetErika]

Excellent ideas; thanks so much, Fire!

I thought of Rice Crispy Treats as an allergy-free thing. I've never made them because I don't particularly like them, but they'd certainly be easy to make and dress up.

The caramel apple idea is a great one, too. I could even totally cop-out and bring apple slices and premade caramel dip, I suppose.

These are actually for adults, as 99% of the kids are 7-13 months old. The concern with the allergies is if something falls on the floor and the allergic kid puts it in his mouth. That kid better be there on Wednesday for the trouble we'll all go to to make sure everything is egg- and nut-free!

 

[Luna_Bella]

for the little ones I would suggest just cutting cheese with Halloweenish cookie cutters, its fairly easy to do and most tots like cheese. like Firebreeze said it is mainly in the presentation, a regular veggie and dip can be souped up with few drops of food colouring in the dip and a few accessories. Good luck!!

(mmm caramel apples!!!!)

 

[NippleMuncher]

I thought of Rice Crispy Treats as an allergy-free thing. I've never made them because I don't particularly like them, but they'd certainly be easy to make and dress up.

I love RC treats, and you're right, they're very easy to dress up with a quick drizzle or dip in chocolate. I recommend making them about 3/4" thick and no larger than 1" square to make them easy to eat without being messy. The big blocks are tough to eat and tend to get you all sticky in the process. IMHO, bite size treats, no matter what they may be, are the best.

The caramel apple idea is a great one, too. I could even totally cop-out and bring apple slices and premade caramel dip, I suppose.

Same as with the RC treats, for ease of eating and lack of mess, go with the apple slices and caramel dip.

Since this is primarily for the adults, having better snacks such as apples and cheese, or a veggie/dip platter would be good. Even fruit would be good.

 

[fire_breeze]

Excellent ideas; thanks so much, Fire!

I thought of Rice Crispy Treats as an allergy-free thing. I've never made them because I don't particularly like them, but they'd certainly be easy to make and dress up.

The caramel apple idea is a great one, too. I could even totally cop-out and bring apple slices and premade caramel dip, I suppose.

These are actually for adults, as 99% of the kids are 7-13 months old. The concern with the allergies is if something falls on the floor and the allergic kid puts it in his mouth. That kid better be there on Wednesday for the trouble we'll all go to to make sure everything is egg- and nut-free!

Absolutely! And seeing as it's not just for Hallowe'en, but also Fall treats, what is more Fall than apples?

Seeing as these are for adults and not for little Epsilons, how about making sandwiches? If you have those soft breads, cut out shapes with moulds (pumpkin is the easiest) and slather on your spread (cream cheese, hummus, etc). It'll look like you've spent hours on it, when in fact it'll take all of 15 minutes It'll be more adult oriented, which I'm sure that the parents would appreciate, and still very easy to make.

In any case, I hope the tot shows up! With all that trouble, he'd better put in an appearance!

 

[SweetErika]

OK, so we ended up making caramel popcorn balls w/ a little pumpkin candy on top of each, as well as caramel dip (caramels + half-and-half, microwaved) with apple slices and pretzels. Both were a huge hit, particularly the apples and dip. A lot of other parents brought brownies and stuff w/ eggs in them because they didn't know or care about the allergy, but I was glad to bring something allergy-free and as healthy as people wanted to make it.

No one brought RC treats, which totally shocked me! I bought the stuff for them at the store, so maybe I'll bring them for our holiday party. I have holiday/xmas cookie cutters, so I should be able to make those cute with a minimum of effort.

The kidlets were all exceedingly cute in their costumes. Mine was a monkey, which totally fits since he climbs and gets around like nobody's business.

Thanks for the great ideas, everyone! I'll definitely file them away for the future.

 

[NippleMuncher]

Glad your get together was a success.

 

[SweetErika]

Glad your get together was a success.

Thanks, NM!

In retrospect, I probably didn't need to bring anything because there was enough food leftover to feed about 30 people, but it was still fun to make some new things (except unwrapping the caramels; half of what I bought were cheap bulk ones that took forever to unwrap!) and add some variety to the mix.