Halloween in the 80’s in New Zealand

Trick or treating was never something I did as a kid. In the 80’s and even early 90’s, the concept of Halloween and trick or treating was still very much viewed as an American tradition. As such, and because noone in our neighbourhood partook, we weren’t allowed to either.

Despite not being allowed to dress up and trawl the neighbourhood, we’d still chant “trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something nice to eat!” for the month of October (much to Mum’s annoyance), until she finally gave in and handed over the sweets.

These days Halloween is much more celebrated in New Zealand and no doubt we’ll have trick or treaters knocking away at our door in a few days, much to Chewie’s delight!

So this year I’m joining in the fun with these Trick Or Treat Halloween Spider Web Cookies!

Are These Cookies A Trick Or A Treat?

What do you mean, I hear you say? Let’s take a closer look.

For starters, they’re a deliciously soft, dairy, grain and refined sugar free cookie, made with almond butter and the rather “tricky”, sunflower seed flour.

If you haven’t come across sunflower seed flour yet, it’s simply finely ground sunflower seeds which also goes by the name ‘sunflour’.

 The “Tricky” Reaction Between Sunflower Seeds And Baking Soda

When you combine sunflower seed flour with baking soda in baked goods, something very interesting happens.

If you leave your baked goods to sit for any length of time, you’ll begin to see greenish blue spots appear which you may initially think is mould.

On closer inspection, however, there’s no furriness typical of mould and that’s because the green spots are the result of a chemical reaction between the sunflower seeds and baking soda.

Rest assured this reaction is perfectly harmless and still very much safe to eat.

Sounds Perfect For A Halloween Cookie Right?

My thoughts exactly.

The question is, are you feeling tricky this Halloween?

If your answer is yes, be sure to make these cookies a good few days before Halloween so that your unsuspecting trick or treaters will get a harmless tricky surprise in the middle of their delicious treat.

Cackle cackle.

I’ll leave it up to you whether or not you tell them they’re not in fact eating mould and the real reason for the green spots.

Happy Halloween!

Trick Or Treat Halloween Spider Web Cookies

Makes: 12 large flat cookies
Prep time: 20 minutes  Bake time: 10-12 minutes

50ml coconut oil, melted
100g sunflower flour (ground sunflower seeds)
90g coconut sugar
10g coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch pink Himalayan salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
50g almond butter

Decoration:
100g dark chocolate (I used Whittakers 70% Ghana dairy free chocolate)
50g white chocolate (I used Loving earth dairy free white chocolate)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170ºC fan bake and line two oven trays with baking paper or mats.

Gently melt the coconut oil.

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse to combine. Alternatively, combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir well.

Combine all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and mix well, then add the wet to the dry and stir together until evenly combined.

Drop spoonfuls of mixture onto the lined baking trays and form into round cookie shapes. No need to flatten as they do so on their own in the oven.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies have turned a golden brown and feel set when pressed lightly.

Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool on their trays for at least 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To decorate:

Melt the dark chocolate either in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of steaming water or in the microwave. Drop a spoonful of melted chocolate on top of each cookie and use a spatular or flat knife to spread out to the edges. Next melt the white chocolate and pour into a small paper piping bag. Pipe 3 circles on each cookie and use a knife to draw lines out from the centre to create a spider web design.

Once the chocolate icing has set, store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

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