Halloween has come, gone, and left us with a mountain of leftover candy. It was a rainy, chilly evening here in St. Louis for trick or treating. Although some faithful trick or treaters braved the elements in search of full sized candy bars, the numbers were limited. The rain finally stopped around 8pm, but by then, most of the little ones were tucked in bed. Whether you were stuck with candy to give, or your neighbors were super generous to your children who brought home piles of sugar, baking these cookies is a delicious way to use up some of that leftover candy.

This recipe is super nostalgic to me. When I was young, my favorite part of sitting in a suite to watch the mighty St. Louis Blues was the food. The game was great, the seats were awesome, but really… for this six year old it was all about the food- especially the dessert cart. When I heard that brisk knock on the door during the game, I would leap up and run to the door to welcome the dessert cart man to our suite. Of all the delicious treats, the one I remember most was the snickerdoodle cookie with a candy center on a stick. I’ve been wanting to make these for a while now (20 something years), and with all of this leftover Halloween candy, it seemed like an opportune time.

Sweet cinnamon sugar coats these chewy cookies with a melty sweet center. I think a variety of Halloween candies will work for the center. I used Snickers, but you can try Milky Way, 3 Musketeers, Baby Ruth, Rolos and more. The jumbo size popsicle sticks are  found at your local craft store and hold the cookies well. I wrapped these cookies with plastic candy bags over the cookies and tied them with a ribbon. We recently took them to a tailgate and they were a hit (pardon the ubiquitous Solo cups in the picture). They won’t last long at any birthday party, baby shower, luncheon, or bake sale!

Snickerdoodle Cookie Pops

Prep Time: 40 min. Cook Time: 14 min.

Adapted From: Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

12 fun-size chocolate coated candies (or 24 bite-size 1 x 1″ candies)

Topping:

1/4 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°. Cut each candy piece in half into a 1 x 1″ square. Insert a baking stick in the candy pieces about 3/4 of the way through and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, 1 cup of white sugar, and brown sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs and continue to mix. Then, add the dry ingredients and mix to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine the 1/4 cup white sugar and cinnamon together.

Using your hands, wrap a heaping tablespoon of dough around the candy so that none of the candy is showing.

Next, use a spoon to generously roll the dough in the cinnamon sugar until coated.

Bake on a silicone mat for 12-14 minutes.

Cool on the pan until they are easy to remove, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Makes 24 cookie pops

If you’ve followed this blog for any amount of time, you know that we’re crazy for the Cardinals. There has been a lot of media lately about Cardinal fans and our antics. We’re loyal. We’re emotional. And most importantly, we believe in our boys. I’m writing this post as the Cards are battling the Red Sox in the World Series. Go birds! I love this season because not only because we get to dance on baseball cloud nine, but also cheer on our favorite college football team, the Mizzou tigers. Sadly, we witnessed their homecoming loss this weekend. Oh also, Neil recently went to his very first NHL game (Let’s Go Blues!) and is hooked. St. Louis is truly a great sports town. Wait a sec…this is a food blog. I’m just writing about sports. Not food. Is that bad?

Let’s get back to food. Here’s what I think: seasonal food tastes good. When we’re looking for ideas on what to cook, often times we’ll just go to the grocery store and see what looks good. Honeycrisp apples are my favorite. I’ve always found granny smith a little tart for my liking, and although most people cook with them, I wanted to see what would happen if I used honeycrisp instead. The results were delicious. This cinnamon spiced bundt cake is reminiscent of a sticky sweet caramel apple. Served warm à la mode, this cake might settle any competitive tiffs amongst your friends. But really… Go Cards!

Caramel Apple Bundt Cake

Prep Time: 30 min. Cook Time: 90 min.

Ingredients:

5 honeycrisp apples, peeled, cored, and diced

3 cups of all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 sticks butter, melted

4 eggs

1 cup caramel sauce

1 cup lightly toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter a 10-cup bundt pan well and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the eggs and sugar together until fluffy. Add cooled melted butter and vanilla together and continue to mix.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Add 1/2 of the dry mixture to wet and combine until just incorporated. Do the same with the other half of the dry mixture. Using a spatula, fold in apples.

Evenly distribute the batter in the bundt pan and place pan on a baking sheet.

Bake for 50-60 min. When it’s done, a sharp knife will come out clean. Cool in the bundt pan placed on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Loosen cake with a knife, flip on a serving plate and tap hard on the pan to loosen. Hopefully yours will slide right out of the pan!

Top with your favorite caramel sauce and chopped nuts.

Serves 12

So, now that Labor Day is over… can we crack open that can of pumpkin for baking? How about apple crisp? Can we make that now? These are the questions I found myself asking this weekend. Every year at this time I so yearn to fast forward straight to full out fall flavors- pumpkin, cinnamon, caramel, apple, oh my. However, I truly believe that before fall baking commences, I need to feel at least a little chill in the air. It’s hard to wait for fall.

While wrestling with this inner struggle of mine, this weekend I decided to go for it. I am holding off on fall baking for a little longer, but I did indulge in decadent fall flavors by incorporating them in everyone’s favorite cool treat- ice cream!!!

This recipe is not a joke. It’s so good. The ice cream freezes overnight, but should still be soft enough to easily scoop the next day. Enjoy.

Bourbon Ice Cream with Salted Caramel Sauce
Caramel Sauce From:Caramel Budino with Salted Caramel Sauce
Ice Cream Adapted From: Brown Sugar-Bourbon Ice Cream by Bon Appetit and Vanilla Ice Cream by Alton Brown

Prep Time: 30 min. Cook Time: 12 hours

Ingredients:

For the Bourbon Ice Cream:

2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups whole milk
6 egg yolks
½ cup brown sugar
½  cup white sugar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup bourbon
1 tablespoon vanilla

For the Salted Caramel Sauce:

½ cup heavy cream
½ cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 tablespoons water
½ stick butter cubed
3 pinches of kosher salt

Preparation:

In a medium saucepan over medium high heat, bring heavy cream and milk to a simmer (do not boil). Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks until light in color and texture. Whisk in both sugars and salt to the yolks. Slowly stir in ¼ cup of the cream to eggs to temper the mixture. Stir in the remaining cream and return this mixture back to the saucepan.

Cook over low heat stirring occasionally until mixture thickens, about 12 minutes. Pour custard into a container and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Stir in the bourbon and vanilla and cover with plastic wrap. Chill in refrigerator for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

While the ice cream is chilling, prepare the salted caramel sauce.

In a medium bowl, combine the heavy cream, milk, and vanilla. Set aside. In a medium heavy saucepan, whisk together the sugar, corn syrup, and water together over medium heat until sugar dissolves.

Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Continue to boil sugar mixture stirring frequently and swirling pan until it becomes a dark amber color, about 6 minutes.

Remove from heat and slowly whisk in the cream and milk mixture. Cook this mixture over medium high heat, whisking frequently, until thick, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter and salt. Set aside to cool. Now, it’s time to make that ice cream!

Remove custard from the refrigerator and pour slowly into a rotating ice cream maker. Churn for about 30 minutes or until a frozen yogurt texture forms. Transfer ice cream to a container and freeze for 3 hours. After 3 hours, remove from freezer and stir in ½ of the salted caramel sauce. Return ice cream to freezer and freeze overnight.

Store caramel in an airtight container in refrigerator overnight.

Allow caramel sauce to come to room temperature before drizzling over the bourbon ice cream.

8 Servings