Low Waste Halloween Treats

Low Waste Halloween Treats

Halloween is going to be a little different this year as there wont be any large parties or lots of Trick or Treating but you can still make it fun for your kids at home.  Why not decorate the house and make some spooky treats to eat while playing games or watching a scary film.

If you’re looking for low waste Halloween Treats then you want to make sure you reduce as much unnecessary packaging as possible, if you can buy your ingredients from a refill store that’s perfect, and you also want to reduce food waste.

With this is mind the first two recipes on my list use Pumpkins, what better way to reduce waste at Halloween.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

This has to be one of the best low waste Halloween treats, you can add other sweet or savoury flavourings.

Ingredients:

  • Pumpkin Seeds
  • Olive Oil or Vegetable Oil
  • Salt

How To:

  1. Preheat the oven to 300⁰F.
  2. Toss the pumpkin seeds with oil and salt and spread evenly on a baking sheet.
  3. Roast in the oven for 35-45 minutes, until golden brown.
  4. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool the seeds.

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

  • 500g (1 1/4 lb) pumpkin, cooked and pureed
  • 1 (410g) tin evaporated milk
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 175g (6 oz) dark brown soft sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 350g (12 oz) plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 200g (7 oz) butter
  • 125ml (4 fl oz) cold water

How To:

  1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas mark 6.
  2. Scoop out Pumpkin seeds (keep for roasting) and put stringy bits out for the birds.
  3. Cut pumpkin into chunks.
  4. In a saucepan over medium heat, cover the pumpkin with water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until tender.
  5. Drain and cool, then mash.
  6. Drain well, and measure 500g of the mashed pumpkin
  7. Prepare pastry by mixing together the flour and salt. Rub butter into flour and add 1 tablespoon cold water to mixture at a time. Mix and repeat until pastry is moist enough to hold together.
  8. With lightly floured hands, shape pastry into a ball and roll pastry out thinly.  Use a lightly floured board and rolling pin.
  9. Place the pastry in a 20cm pie dish, gently pressing pastry into the bottom.
  10. Cut off any excess pastry hanging over the sides of the dish, and pinch pastry around the edge of the dish.
  11. In a large bowl beat the pumpkin with evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.
  12. Pour into the pastry pie dish.
  13. Bake 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Chocolate Dipped Marshmallows

Ingredients:

  • 700g Giant Marshmallow
  • 250g Chocolate (Try to get chocolate in cardboard)
  • 150g Halloween Themed Cake Sprinkles

How To:

  1. Break the chocolate up into pieces
  2. Place in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water
  3. Pour the cake sprinkles onto a plate
  4. When the chocolate is melted leave it to cool slightly for a couple of minutes
  5. Put a stick in a marshmallow and dip it in the chocolate. You could use Prezel Sticks intead
  6. Wipe off excess chocolate and wait a minute
  7. Dip the chocolate covered marshmallow in the cake sprinkles
  8. Place upright in a tall glass and leave to set
  9. Repeat with each marshmallow
If you use White Chocolate you can add some food colouring once you’ve melted the chocolate.
low waste Halloween treats

Ghoulish Mummy Sausages

Ingredients:

  • Puff Pastry, you can use ready made and as you don’t need to much this is good for using up leftovers
  • 350g pack Frankfurters or Chipolata sausages
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 4 tsp soft cheese, to decorate
  • 1 tsp chopped black olives, to decorate
  • Flour for rolling out pasty

How To:

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas mark 6.
  2. Lightly roll out the pastry to 0.5cm thick on a floured board. a
  3. Cut into long thin strips, about 0.5cm wide. You’ll need 1-2 strips per sausage.
  4. Wrap the pastry strips around each sausage to make a mummy-wrap effect, leaving a space for the eyes at the top.
  5. Brush with the beaten egg, then put on a lined baking tray.
  6. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes, until the pastry is puffed and golden, and the sausages cooked through.
  7. Decorate the face using soft cheese for the eyes, then top with a small piece of black olive.
  8. Serve with ketchup 

Why not get creative and see what other ghoulish Low Waste Halloween treats you can come up with.  Here are a few more ideas:

  • Mandarin Pumpkins
  • Banana ghosts
  • Decorated biscuits
  • Spaghetti spiderweb
  • Toffee Apples

There are lots of things you can do, for more recipe ideas take a look at the BBC Good Food Easy Halloween Recipes

If you’re looking for more low waste Halloween inspiration check out my Blog How to Have a Fun Halloween While Social Distancing.

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7 thoughts on “Low Waste Halloween Treats to Eat”

  1. Great ideas! We always try to use every last bit of our Halloween pumpkins too – the seeds get roasted, and the insides get made in to soup or pie.

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