Some Spooky Treats for Halloween

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

I was toying with an idea for a simple, fairly healthy, after-school Halloween snack. So I made a jack-o-lantern from an apple, stuffed it with granola and microwaved it until it was cooked through.

Truth be told, my three-year-old granddaughter, a rather picky eater, was charmed with the appearance but not keen on the taste. While she loves fresh apple slices, she’d never had a baked apple and the taste and texture were unfamiliar. If your little ones like baked apples or if you’re looking for an adult snack, I hope you’ll give this recipe a try. (I ate the whole thing!)

Halloween Baked Apple
1 large Granny Smith Apple
1/3 cup granola (amount depends on size of apple)
2 to 3 teaspoons butter

Cut the top off the apple and reserve to form a cap. Using a sharp paring knife, cut triangles for the eyes and cut a mouth into the apple. (The apple will sag when baked so don’t cut the mouth too close to the bottom of the apple.)

To hollow out the apple, using a sharp paring knife, cut down into the apple, leaving a half-inch margin around the sides, until about halfway down, just past the seeds. Be careful that you don’t cut yourself.

Now cut an X from the top of the apple to the margins. (It’s easier to scoop out a quarter of an apple at a time, rather than trying to scoop out the whole apple at once.) Using a spoon, hollow out the apple so you have a bowl with edges ½-inch thick and with enough apple at the bottom to keep the bowl intact.

In a small bowl, combine granola and butter, mix with your fingers, and stuff the granola mixture into the apple cavity. The granola should come up to the top of the apple bowl. Cover with the apple cap, set the apple on a microwave-safe plate and microwave a minute at a time just until the apple is soft when pierced with a fork. Mine took about 5 minutes. Cool and serve.

Makes 1 baked apple.

Note:

• It’s best to bake these one at a time, since the microwave oven cooks from the outside in. As the plate rotates, the apple is being cooked evenly, all around. With more than one apple, the microwaves will not be able to penetrate around the whole apple at once. If you choose to bake more than one apple at a time, arrange them in spoke fashion around the rim of the plate and rotate the apples every minute so each side is exposed to the microwaves.
• The granola I used is made from an easy recipe for California Almond Granola with Golden Raisins.

Here are some other simple and fun Halloween treats from the Special Fork recipe database:

• Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes starts with cupcakes made from a cake mix. Chocolate cookie crumbs form the dirt and the pumpkins are fashioned from marzipan almond candy dough.
• Graveyard Cupcakes are also made with cake mix cupcakes. Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies are turned into gravestones and gummy worms add the ghoulish effect.
• Creepy Fingers and “Blood” Dip is made with fingers of string cheese sticks; cherry tomato halves become fingernails.
• Halloween Ghosts are really candy haystacks made by mixing crispy chow mein noodles, toasted almonds and melted white chocolate to form ghostly shapes.

Have a fun—and safe—Halloween!

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