With three kiddos you probably think I have all kinds of adorable Halloween food treats up my witch’s hat. Years back, I was ridiculously devoted to Halloween.
Before having children, I would take time off work to decorate my house. Yes, I took vacation days to create Halloween characters, decorate my house with lights, set the scene with music and then bring all those creepy/silly characters to life.
Here’s the thing: outside of cooking, I’m not much of a crafty person. I don’t have a sewing machine. Using a glue gun stresses me out. But, I managed to pull off this silliness (and more) over the years…
I have a soft spot for those three witches, they are my babes. 😉 The witches’ cauldron has blinky lights inside, snakes and spiders on top, and a sign in with “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble“.
And those ghosts? I have dozens! they are ghouly on windows, but also so cool inside hanging from doors and lights – and even on hedges outside! So, the girls absolutely love this crazy side of their mother.
Yet, I have less and less time to pull it off every year, let alone get crafty in the kitchen with really cute Halloween food. Any other mothers with me?
Yet, I want to make more fun Halloween treats, because the “treats” that are out there? Anything but. Mass-marketed Halloween candy is rife with artificial colors, artificial flavors, preservatives, hydrogenated oils, GMOs – not to mention dairy and gelatin.
If you follow my FB page, I posted a couple of images over the weekend about GMOs in Halloween candy and also some alternatives. Link over if you want to have a look.
Every Halloween our girls run through the neighborhood collecting stashes of this junk. We donate it or otherwise give it away.
The girls are actually totally cool about it. They don’t want most of those candy. We sort through and find a few acceptable treats. Then, I trade up for the GOOD stuff. Better chocolate treats! And also little bags of organic chips. Or, I treat them with some of my own homemade goodies!
So, this year I was determined to make some sort of playful Halloween treat. It had to meet 2 conditions:
1) Quick and easy to make.
2) Nut-free option so they could share at school.
Behold… Chocolate Lollibats!
As I mentioned, I don’t have a lot of kitchen-crafty things. So, when I had this idea in mind, I needed to get a mold to set some chocolate.
I popped into Kitchen Therapy, and lucked into this silicone bat ice-cube mold. I see online they also have pumpkin molds!
I had a hard time deciding a name for these little treats. Originally I had a different ingredient combo, and frozen them. So, “Batsicles” came to mind. But, realizing these would not work for school, I reformulated. I was tossing around some name ideas, then polled you all on facebook. “Lollibats” edged out “Bat Bites” and “Batsicles”. I love all the names. You may call me Batwoman. 😉
Holy chocolate treats, vegan Batwoman!
When looking at this recipe, you may wonder why I’ve added nut butter. Why not just melt the chocolate and fill the molds? Well, you could do that. Absolutely. The chocolate will be very hard, however, just as it is in chocolate chip form.
By adding a touch of nut butter, it allows the chocolate to be softer to insert a toothpick. I also find this consistency preferable for little kids, easier for them to bite into. Finally, it makes the dark chocolate taste a little more like milk chocolate!
Chocolate Lollibats ReciPage link
1/2 cup non-dairy chocolate chips
1 – 1 1/2 tbsp sunflower seed butter or a good-quality tahini (as in this post) (can also use almond/cashew butter or peanut butter if nut allergies aren’t present); see note
optional: 1/4 – 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder (I use Organic Traditions, I’m loving this stuff! – use 1/2 tsp for sunflower butter, 1/4 tsp for nut butters)
Set a heat-proof bowl over a small pot with a few inches of water (setting up a double boiler). Turn heat to medium-low. Add chocolate, sunflower seed butter or nut butter, and vanilla powder to the bowl. Stir through until it is fully melted. Remove from heat, and spoon into a chocolate mould (I use a silicon ice cube mould). Once finishing with spooning in the chocolate, transfer the filled pan to the fridge to cool completely. Once firm, invert to remove the chocolate shapes. Serve as is, or insert toothpicks into each to make “lollibats”! (If you don’t have molds, pour the melted chocolate into a very small rimmed pan or dish so that it will be about 3/4″ thick. Once cool, cut into small cubes, and insert toothpicks.)
Nut Butter Note: If using just 1 tbsp of nut butter, the lollipops will be just a touch firmer than using 1 1/2 tbsp. I prefer the consistency with 1 1/2 tbsp, they are much like a milk chocolate. For school parties, it might be best to keep them firmer with 1 tbsp of the nut butter.
“But the bat just flew into my fingers, mom!”
If you want more Halloween inspiration, here are some imaginative ideas (sweet and savory):
Homemade “Rolo” Knock-Offs and 3-layer Almond Coconut Chocolate Bars from from Oh She Glows
Raw Witches’ Fingers from Choosing Raw
Jalapeno Popper Pepper Jacks from Spabettie
Falafel Fingers from Vegan Richa
Wishing you all a Happy Halloween! Have any fun and easy ideas for food or decorating? Please share with us!
Sending plant-powered kitchen love to you all! xx -Dreena
Richa says
I love the Lollibats and everything about this post!
Alisa says
That décor is awesome Dreena! I can’t believe you made those. You are beyond crafty, seriously.
Christine (The Raw Project) says
These look great, thanks! I need to try the sunflower butter option for my nephew.
Liz says
Dreena, I NEVER in a million years would have guessed you were a Halloween person, but I love learning new things about you! Those creations of yours are AMAZING. I love decorating for the holidays/seasons so I always have SOMETHING going on outside. Consequently, I always have stuff up around Halloween, too, but nothing Halloween-THEMED. I call it my “Harvest decorations” (think Scarecrows, hay bales, pumpkins, yard stakes, mums, leaf garlands, all things fall-related), and I do lights, as well, because it all just looks SO beautiful lit up at night. I keep them up through Thanksgiving when I take them down to put up my Christmas decorations. It’s been unanimously decided, though, among the family, that we’re all more a fan of the “harvest decorations” due to all the vibrant colors they possess.
On another note, I make my own quickie chocolate ALL of the time using nut butter (raw cashew and roasted coconut butter are my butters of choice) because, yes, it somehow makes the chocolate taste milky. Those bats are ADORABLE; I’m a fan of all and ANY mini treats; I can’t resist their cuteness, and they have built in portion control!
Dreena says
Liz, I’m a big kook at heart! 😉 Thanks so much, really enjoyed reading your comment, gave me a big smile!! I LOVE the idea of harvest decorations, and they much more of a “life” than Halloween. Usually I put up the Halloween stuff a day or two before Halloween – then it’s all down the day after. Lots of work for a couple of days (you really don’t want to look at it once Halloween is done)! With your decorations, you can enjoy them for weeks!! As for th chocolate, I also luv, luv raw cashew butter. I’ve never had roasted coconut butter though!! – only raw. Do you make it or a certain brand you buy?
Liz says
D (can I call you “D”? 🙂 ),
Yes, that is the very reason I do “harvest” decorations — their “shelf life” is quite long (I put them out around the end of Septemeber), and they serve as both Halloween and T-Day (for us in The States) decorations so I get a couple months worth out of them. Plus, their color eases the transition into the gray, dull days that the end of Fall brings, void of foliage and my lovely garden,. And, yes, if you’re going to spend the time and go through all the effort to put decorations UP, they should be there long enough to enjoy them!
As for the coconut butter, I make my own, and you HAVE to try it. It’s SO delicious, SO much better than the raw. To my palate, I find that the coconut tastes somehow sweeter when toasted and butterized. I do it in my Vitamix, and it takes, literally, about 45-60 seconds (1.5-2 minutes to get it SILKY) — MUCH much quicker to make than the raw kind, just like with all the other butters. With your Blendtec, it should take a similar amount of time. It takes longer to toast the coconut! The stuff is SO good, I need to muster up every ounce of willpower to not DRINK the stuff straight from my blender (it’s pretty much milk consistency by the time it comes out). I make the butter a bag of coconut at a time; Let’s Do Organic is my preferred brand, and I pretty much just use it exclusively. 1 8oz bag makes enough butter to fill a 9 oz jar. Promise me you’ll give it a go; I do NOT think you’ll be disappointed!
(Oh my. How do all my comments end up to be so LONG? I’m so sorry I make you read these novellas everytime I have something to say! I need an editor to mark down my comments. LOL)
Natalie says
I could not make these for school because my son’s school is totally nut free. I will try them at home, though!
Dreena says
Natalie, you can make them with sunflower butter as mentioned in the ingredients. Our schools are also entirely nut-free, so I tested these with the sunflower butter. They taste a little ‘peanutty’ with it!
Dreena says
I noticed my notes weren’t so clear about the sunflower seed butter – hopefully makes more sense now!
Dreena says
Tiffany, you are always so sweet to me. Thank you. 🙂 Do you have H & M in your area? That’s where we picked up the ring for our daughter. I was not intending to shop for jewellery, but take the girls, and they always hit the accessories in there! It’s a set of 3 rings, pretty sure it won’t last too long for her, but she is THRILLED wearing it right now. 😉
Tiffany says
Dreena, you are so creative in the Kitchen! I love these!
Is that your daughter’s ring in the corner? It is beautiful! I want one too 🙂