Nana loved Halloween when she was a child because it was a chance to be anything you wanted to be for one night of the year. Nana never played any tricks beyond TP-ing the trees but she sure loved the treats like all children do.
There was a special person in the neighborhood who always handed out a very special treat. This neighbor had lost his legs from the knee down during WWll but he made fresh candied apples on his front porch every year. All of the children dressed in their goblin and witch costumes couldn’t wait to get to his house for one of those shiny red apples he dipped in a big cauldron bubbling with red, cinnamon scented sugary syrup. It was the memory of this special treat that caused Nana to make her own version of candied apples, but why just apples? What about winter pears or those juicy, crunchy fat and Buddha round Asian apples?
Leave it to Nana to take an old favorite and turn it into a new and healthier treat. First she scrubs the crispest of apples, and pears. Then she inserts a sturdy stick where the stem would be if she hadn’t twisted it out. Using this stick as a handle she hand dips each fruit into a new batch of unset sour apple Pillowmellow® and lets it set up for about an hour. Then she dips the Pillowmellow® coated fruit into the world’s finest dark chocolate. Next come the frills. While the chocolate is still wet she rolls the bottom of the fruit onto chopped Brazil nuts and tops the fruit with the creamiest of caramel and lets it drip down the sides. Then she does her squiggle art with white “chocolate.”
Now this is quite a big treat and each apple or winter pear serves 4-6 people if you slice it down all sides close to but just missing the core, and cut those sides into wedges.
The Asian pear will serve 6 or more people easy… well not easy… as people usually snatch up more than one sliced wedge… they can’t help themselves.
Why dark chocolate? Because doctors are saying to eat at least 3 oz. of dark, high cocoa butter content chocolate each day. That is why Nana uses high cocoa butter content dark chocolate almost exclusively… less sugar or even sugar free. For once docs are telling us to do something decadent.
Why Brazil nuts: These yummy nuts are difficult to dig out of their thick shell and so people often don’t bother. But remember the old saying, “ good things come in small packages” and Nana might add that some of the best things in life take hard work before the fun. It turns out that Brazil nuts have complete protein; that means all 20 of the amino acids we need each day, good news for vegetarians. Brazil nuts also have a high content of selenium, which is a trace mineral that has been found to perhaps (all the data isn’t in yet) fight some cancers particularly prostate cancer IF the man already has a low PSA value.
Why caramel? We can’t be perfect now can we? It is there because it is absolutely scrumptious. And remember it is just a bit if you eat only your share… fat chance isn’t it? Brush your teeth afterwards.
Other good news is that these good girls have a long shelf life because the fruit is all snuggled in their sweet beds of deliciousness. About a month refrigerated. So buy yourself an extra one for when the company leaves.
A great stocking stuffer. Wrapped in pure vegetable derived cellulose and tied with natural raffia ribbon in red or green. Bow and everything all done for ya. Nana wishes she could see your smiles.
