Can it really be thursday already? This week is just flying by. The above are some more halloween shots- butternut squash faces and the rocket ships the Switch Witch left the boys (taken with pics from an ipod I don't know how to work very well when I left my camera at my friend's house.) What you can't see is how disenchanted I am feeling about the celebrating of halloween and how determined I am to change this celebration for our family in the coming years to contain more magic and meaning. I was inspired by this post at This Cosy Life, about creating a magical nature-focused Samhain for kids. I also love the sound of some of the celebrations that are held at Waldorf schools like the wonderful one Jules wrote about. I was chatting with a friend today about creating something magical for our kids next year- we'll see where that goes I guess.
And I had some requests for the coconut candy recipe that I made the kiddos for halloween. I'm not sure I can provide a recipe exactly, as I was mostly just experimenting, but I think I can offer enough of a method that you could give it a try yourself. I think these are a very tasty little treat. True, we have been eating very simply lately, so a little bit of honey tastes crazy sweet and good, but I think this would taste good to anyone, not just those doing an allergy diet! The consistency is quite chocolate-like - very rich and creamy. If you eat chocolate, I bet a bit of cocoa powder mixed in there would be divine.
So here goes and attempt at a recipe of sorts.
So here goes and attempt at a recipe of sorts.
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Coconut Butter Honey Candy you will need: coconut butter or shredded coconut honey extracts or essential oils for flavour natural food colouring (optional) foil candy wrappers If you have coconut butter, you can put this into your blender straight- as much as looks right for how many candies you will be making. I used less than a cup and that made enough for my kids, with a few enjoyed by the adults too. If you are starting with shredded coconut, you need to blend that up to turn it into coconut butter first. In my (ancient) Vitamix I was able to blend it into a flour-ish consistency, and then adding a little bit of melted coconut oil made it blend into a smooth creamy butter. If you are doing this anyway, make a bunch. It is yummy stuff to have around. Blend coconut butter until smooth and add honey to taste. Coconut is pretty sweet on its own so you don't need much. At this point I got something quite moldable, so I mixed in some flavour- I split the batch and added a drop of mint essential oil to one half and almond extract to the other. I had some natural food colour in the cupboard so I added a little to make it all the more exciting for the kiddos. Roll mixture into small ball shapes- size may vary depending on the size of your candy wrappers. Roll them up and twist the ends and ta-da! healthy candies! |
It would be fun to try different flavours with different essential oils or natural extracts. The mint was so very yummy, but I just bought anise and orange essential oils for making toothpaste (I'll let you know how that goes!) and I bet both of those would be very tasty. These will definitely be making an appearance at solstice this year- I have lots more of the gold foil wrappers and they seem like the perfect wrapping for some treats to celebrate the sun!
Enjoy your tasty treats! Goodnight friends.
ETA: sorry for any confusion between "coconut creme" and "coconut butter" in the original post. I think it should be clearer now!
ETA: sorry for any confusion between "coconut creme" and "coconut butter" in the original post. I think it should be clearer now!
I so want to try this, we can all eat it! I'm just not clear on what coconut cream is? Is it just whipped coconut oil or is it that coconut milk in a can or ???
ReplyDeleteWe really want to get a Vitamix, Costco has them this month, but the old Osterizer is still hanging in there!
xoxo
~ joey ~
Hi Joey- yay, a treat you can all eat! I just realized that I was writing "Coconut creme" and meaning "coconut butter." I will change that in the post now. If you have not had coconut butter before, you could look for it at your local health food store, or see if your osterizer will blend coconut flakes into something resembling butter. Let me know if it works out for you!
ReplyDeleteI agree about Halloween, but this year I was really moved by it. We went to our local Waldorf school where each family set up a "station", including setting their family's carved pumpkin on a stump. The pumpkins were carved (by father and child) the week beforehand at the school during another gathering. We lit our pumpkins, set up blankets, and set out our treats in little baskets (there was really no candy, just lots of homemade baked goodies, popcorn, or painted acorns, seashells, clothespin angels, bells, little wooden cars, etc - whatever the families wanted to bring). The children ran around playing on the schools "playground" which is really just a large piece of land in the woods with some homemade wooden play structures. All the while, a few parents got together and played acoustic music. 15 minutes before we began trick or treating, we all gathered, sang some seasonal songs and then sat around listening to a magical storyteller tell a story about a giant pumpkin. Then, when it was dark, each child (with one parent) went from station to station gathering their treats. It was quiet but not in a forced way.
ReplyDeleteI'm just sharing so that you might be able to recreate something like this in your intentional community or with other interested families. It brought back the magic of a holiday that has otherwise become about getting as much loot as possible ("taking"). Benjamin didn't even seem to notice that he didn't get any candy and he only wanted to talk about everyone's characters and costumes, which I thought was very sweet.
Thanks for the recipe! They really sound great. And I love the link about creating a nature-focused Samhain.
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely weekend! xo
Julia- Oh, that does sound just perfect. i think we could create something like this in our little woods with a few families. Thank you for sharing the details of this lovely celebration- it makes me excited about the magic we will create next year!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the recipe!
ReplyDelete