Spooktacular Halloween Bark Lollies

We've always been a family that has enjoyed making cutesy homemade treats for the holidays. Halloween is no exception. With four out of our five kiddos being between the ages of sixteen and twenty-eight now, it's down to just our eleven-year old who's even remotely interested in working on these goodies with me these days. {I'll take it while it lasts.} Making bark for any occasion is a perfect project for kids. No baking. No exact recipe to follow. And, they really can't mess things up too much.

Whether you need a sweet treat for the classroom, something to share at work or an edible party favor to serve up at your Halloween bash, making these suckers is super simple and so fun. They can be served as-is on a platter or be individually wrapped up with a cute ribbon in a clear cellophane bag.

The sky is the limit on embellishments, too, for these festive, spooktacular lollies. So, don't be afraid to use what you love and go crazy.

Yields 16 suckers.

Sweet and Salty Halloween Bark

You can't go wrong with chocolate {or any type of candy really} this time of year. The spirits of ghosts and goblins may be in the air. But, truth be told ... sweets are on our minds. {What parent doesn't look forward to raiding those Trick-or-Treat buckets after the kiddos' bedtime on the night of October thirty-first?} As if we didn't get enough sugar this month, I give you Sweet and Salty Halloween Bark.

My kiddos and I love making different types of bark for different seasons. Besides the fact that it's a simple enough of a "recipe," barks are just so darn fun to make and they really allow for an abundance of creativity. What you include is pretty much up to you. It's a very adaptable, customizable recipe. By starting with a base of melted bittersweet/semi-sweet chocolate, you create a foundation for whatever candy, nuts, dried fruit, sprinkles, etc. that suit your fancy.

NOTE: I highly recommend some sort of pretzels or salted nuts to create that ideal sweet and salty combination. The salty component really counteracts the amount of sweetness present. Furthermore, some coarse salt can be sprinkled on top of the melted chocolate, if desired, to really drive home the salty flavor.

Soft Banana Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies

These cookies, my friends, are seriously one of the best cookies that you'll ever bake and perhaps the best cookies you may ever consume. I know that there are oodles of cookie recipes out there in baking-land. But, these are something spectacular. This recipe is my mother's ... one that she has made for years and years. The cookies are truly a family favorite {along with her Slow Cooker Steak in Golden Mushroom Cream Sauce recipe}. She is asked to make these particular cookies for most any special gathering. And, when the grandkids show up at her house, it's pretty much a given - almost without fail - that they will ask her for these cookies. She usually keeps batches of them tucked away in her freezer. And, truth be told, they are barely given adequate time to thaw before everyone - including the adults - are diving into them.

Ripe, mashed bananas - lending both amazing flavor and extra moisture - are used in the dough. Mini chocolate chips lend just the right amount of crunch as you make your way through each chewy, soft bite. These are not dense like some traditional chocolate chip cookies. Rather, the texture is light, fluffy and ultra-soft.

I highly urge you to try this recipe. And, I'd love for you to come back and let me know how you like these. I think you'll find that these become a family favorite for you, too.

Yields 4 dozen.

Chocolate-Dipped Festive Fudge Pops (The Tale of An Accidental Fun Dessert)

This is a little story about a recipe in the kitchen going from failure to fabulous.  We've all had those "flops" when we're baking or cooking - the ones that sometimes bring tears to our eyes (and bruises to our culinary egos).  Those moments when we realize that we're staring at a disaster-of-a-result sitting on the counter.  We're sure that the garbage is the destination for our failure, but we rack our brains on how to salvage this mess-of-a-recipe that we've created.

Is it too burnt?  What if I scrape off the bad part(s)?  Can I transform this into something else? 

Well, my dear mother, Dawn, had a new recipe to try for chocolate fudge.  It was on one of those recipe cards that you sometimes see on display at the grocery store.  Now know that my mother is a fabulous cook and baker - and a stickler for following recipes precisely.  She made the fudge recipe, but it never quite set up correctly.  The flavor was outstanding, however.  But, once "set," it was still a bit too um, gooey.  She had been in the midst of a baking frenzy - preparing a huge holiday platter of goodies to take to her company Christmas party.  She refused to use this fudge for her platter since its appearance was well, less-than-stellar. 

She was ready to pitch the fudge into the trash.  But, who just happened to stop by?  Yours truly.

I tasted it.  Loved it.  Stole it.

That fudge and I had a date with destiny.  I knew exactly what to do with it.

Thus, these Chocolate Fudge Pops were born.  Now, I was concerned that another fudge recipe wouldn't work like this one did for making fudge pops.  So, I whipped up a batch of a tried-and-true chocolate fudge recipe that I've used (it is from Nestle and can be found HERE.)

You can add in nuts or omit them.  Dried fruit can be added in, too.  (My mother's fudge had dried cherries in it.)  You could make it studded with crushed candy canes for the holidays as I did for the second batch I tried this method with.  These fudge pops would probably work fabulously with peanut butter, eggnog or vanilla fudge, as well.

The number of servings will depend on the fudge recipe you use and the size you make the balls.  Mine yielded around 20 fudge pops.