Halloween Pumpkin Spook Treats

Happy Halloween!  I'd say a holiday is a fine excuse to whip up another batch of rare and treatie-type goodies.  As always, these kind of baked goods are low volume foods, so bake with care and make sure they truly are just an occasional treat.

So, aren't they just hecka cute?  Kinda granola bar-like, but I spiced them up to taste like pumpkin pie.

If you don't like pumpkin pie, then I think you're crazy, but you COULD omit the flavorings I added and still have a very passable granola treat.

The pictures speak for themselves.  And they're saying "YUM."


Halloween Pumpkin Spook Treats

Ingredients:

2 multigrain cereal packets
1 vanilla shake
4-6 tablespoons of water
2 packets of noncalorie sweetener (I used stevia)
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/8 teaspoon rum extract
Non stick no-calorie cooking spray
Orange food coloring (optional) 

Heat your oven to 275 degrees.

Pour your cereals, shake, sweetener, and pumpkin pie spice into a mixing bowl and combine well.  Add your rum extract and 4 tablespoons of water.  Stir well.  Mixture should be thick and sticky.  You can add more water if it looks too dry.  I think I used right at 5 tablespoons when I made mine.  If you wish, now is when you can drop in your food coloring.  I used orange because, well, you know, it's Halloween and stuff.

Once your dough is ready to go, get out a cookie sheet and spray some non stick cooking spray onto it.  Pick out some cool Halloween cookie cutters and spray the inside of them with more cooking spray.  Set the cookie cutter on your cookie sheet, and pack it full of your granola dough.  I just used my fingers.  I'm a very hands-on type of baker.  Press it into the cutter, and lift the cutter away, and your granola should be in the shape of your cookie cutter (or just dollop the dough onto the cookie sheet into small mounds.  Not as cool or as amazing, but it will taste the same.)

Repeat until you've used all your dough.  I would suggest making each granola bar only about 1/2 inch thick.  That way, you'll make about 6 bars and they'll cook nicely and be crispy, as they should be.

Put your cookie sheet in the oven for about 15 minutes.  Start checking them at 10 minutes, though.  The only way I've found to check these effectively is to touch the top of them with your finger to check for doneness.  They should be a little spongy still, but the top should be firm and dry.  Mine took about 20 minutes, but then, I made mine too thick, and you are not going to do that, right?  As they cool, the sponginess firms up.  These won't be crumbly crunchy, but they are definitely chewy and full of a ton of texture. 

Try to stretch this dough into six treats, and then you can count it as one shake every time you eat two of them!  I love easy math.

Whole recipe counts as 3 shakes on Decision Free.