Halloween Candy

It's easy to make your own Halloween apples. You will need a dozen or so good eating apples and the equivalent number of wood skewers. You can buy wood skewers at most supermarkets or at craft stores such as Michaels Arts and Craft Store.

Ingredients

3 cups of granulated sugar
1/3 teaspoon cream of tartar
2/3 cup water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
15 whole cloves
2 teaspoons of red food coloring

Method

Wash and dry the apples. Stick the skewers into the stem ends.

Using a thick saucepan, combine the water, sugar, cream of tartar, lemon juice and cloves. Turn the heat on to the low setting and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the red food coloring.

Turn up the heat and boil hard until the solution reaches the hard crack stage. If you are an experienced candy maker, you will know how to test for the hard crack stage. Otherwise, remove the opportunity for error and use a good candy thermometer. The sugar solution is at the hard crack stage when it reaches 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove the solution from the heat and take out the cloves.

Dip the apples in the pan quickly, turning them to cover.

Set them on a buttered or oiled cookie sheet, not touching.

For best results, use these candy apples the same day they are prepared.

When I was a kid, we called it Candied Popcorn. Now, its more likely to be called Caramel Corn. Either way, this is a great Halloween candy.

Tips First, be careful not to burn yourself. This boiling syrup is hot. Secondly, work quickly. You must not allow the syrup to harden before it is mixed with the corn.

You will need 2 quarts of popped popcorn. One half cup of raw popcorn usually does the trick.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups sugar
1/16 teaspoon cream of tartar
5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of boiling water (this must be exact)
2 teaspoons butter
1/3 teaspoon baking soda

Method

Pop your popcorn and set aside in a large bowl. Cover a flat surface with waxed paper.

Mix together the sugar cream of tartar and water. Mix until the sugar dissolves. Boil but about five minutes but do not stir. The moment that this mixture turns a gold color, remove it from the heat.

Promptly stir in the baking soda and butter. Pour this over the popcorn. Toss it with two forks to coat the popcorn. As soon as the popcorn is cool enough that you can handle it, lift it out by handfuls and put it on sheets of waxed paper. If any kernels are sticking together, break them apart.

Its best to serve this caramel corn the day its made.

We all know turtles are great Halloween candy. They're great candy for any day, for that matter. The good thing is that these treats are surprisingly fast and simple to make.

Ingredients

54 caramels
2 tablespoons of water
6 ounces of chocolate chips (or semi sweet chocolate chips)
3/4 pounds of pecans, whole

You will need a double boiler. Melt the caramels and the water together in the top part of the boiler, over boiling water. Cover while melting, but stir a couple of times. This will take about a quarter of an hour.

Butter a baking sheet. On this sheet, arrange 40 clusters comprised of 4 whole pecans. This cluster makes the turtle's body. Put 2 pecans end to end for the head and tail. Put two more pecans flush with the join.

Leave the melted caramels in the double boiler but remove it from the heat.

Spoon this over the pecan clusters. Cover almost everything but leave a bit of head and tail sticking out, uncovered. Cool.

Melt the chocolate over hot water. Do not allow the water to boil. Leave the melted chocolate in the double boiler with the heat turned off as before. Spoon is over the caramel, using just enough to cover the caramel. Let it flow down the sides so as to not quite touch the plate or foil. Allow this to stand until cool.

If you want to save time, simply make clusters of pecans and do not bother shaping them into turtles. They will resemble the commercial candy Turtles.