Traditional Foods for Trick’ r’ Treaters

Halloween itself was the vigil before the festival days got started (like Christmas Eve). On All Hallows’ Eve, many Western Christian denominations encourage abstinence from meat, giving rise to a variety of vegetarian foods associated with this day.

candy apple

Because in the Northern Hemisphere Halloween comes in the wake of the yearly apple harvest, candy apples (known as toffee apples outside North America), caramel apples, or taffy apples are common Halloween treats made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, sometimes followed by rolling them in nuts.
ho poisoned their own children’s candy.

Barmbrack

One custom that persists in modern-day Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays, the purchase) of a barmbrack (Irish: báirín breac), which is a light fruitcake, into which a plain ring, a coin, and other charms are placed before baking. It is considered fortunate to be the lucky one who finds it. It has also been said that those who get a ring will find their true love in the ensuing year. This is similar to the tradition of king cake at the festival of Epiphany.

Bonfire toffee

Bonfire toffee (also known as treacle toffee, Plot toffee, or Tom Trot) is a hard, brittle toffee associated with Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night (also known as “Bonfire Night”) in the United Kingdom. The toffee tastes very strongly of black treacle (molasses), and cheap versions can be quite bitter. In Scotland, the treat is known as claggum, with less sweet versions known as clack. In Wales, it is known as loshin du (losin du or taffi triog). The flavour is similar to that of butterscotch, although it is a toffee and never a viscous liquid.

Candy pumpkin

A candy pumpkin is a small, pumpkin-shaped, mellow crème confection primarily made from corn syrup, honey, carnauba wax, chocolate, and sugar. Traditionally colored with an orange base and topped with a green stem to make candy pumpkins largely identifiable with Halloween, a candy pumpkin is considered a mellow crème by confectioners since the candy has a marshmallow flavor. Sometimes called candy corn’s first cousin, candy pumpkins are made through a starch casting process similar to that of candy corn. Brach’s candy pumpkin, known by the trademarked name “Mellowcreme Pumpkin,” is the most popular candy pumpkin.

Candy corn

Candy corn is a type of small, pyramid-shaped candy, typically divided into three sections of different colors, with a waxy texture and a flavor based on honey, sugar, butter, and vanilla. It is a staple candy of the fall season and the Halloween holiday in North America.

Candy corn’s traditional colors of yellow, orange, and white represent the colors of the fall harvest, or of corn on the cob, with the wide yellow end resembling a corn kernel.

Candy corn has a reputation for generating polarizing responses, with articles referring to it as “Halloween’s most contentious sweet” which people either “love” or “hate.”