My family didn’t really celebrate Halloween much when I was growing up. We would wear costumes to school and have a party there, but my parents weren’t really into decorating for Halloween and we lived in a rural area that made trick-or-treating difficult. But one vivid memory I have of Halloween from my childhood is reading the book Arthur’s Halloween by Marc Brown. I loved the Arthur books growing up and I think that started with the Halloween book. I don’t know if I checked Arthur’s Halloween out from the library, or if my teacher read the book to our class but either way, reading the book again as an adult to my kids brought back great memories.
One reason Arthur’s Halloween may have resonated with me as a child is because I struggled with anxiety. If Arthur were a human, instead of an aardvark, I’d guess he was a middle elementary aged boy and I don’t find that kids of that age are often shown dealing with anxiety in children’s books. In Arthur’s Halloween though, Arthur is not sure about the unfamiliar costumes, gross sounding snacks, or scary stories that go along with Halloween. When he gets to school, Arthur can’t recognize anybody in their costumes, he decides to skip the “Bat-Wing Brownies” that Francine is passing out at snack time, and he has to pretend to not be scared as he and his friends head out into the night for trick-or-treating. However, when Arthur’s sister D.W. heads into possible danger, he bravely follows after her, despite his fears. This story shows that it’s okay to be anxious, and you can be anxious about something, and still choose to do it anyway! If you have a child who is uncertain about Halloween, or just anxious in general, I think they will find Arthur’s Halloween to be an empowering book, as well as being just plain fun!
Discussion Questions for Arthur’s Halloween:
- Is there anything that you feel anxious about lately? How do you know when you are feeling anxious?
- Is there anything about Halloween that makes you feel anxious or scared?
- Do you think Arthur did the right thing by following D.W. into the scary house? How else could he have helped her?
- Why do you think Arthur wasn’t scared to walk through the cemetery at the end of the book?
When choosing a recipe to go with Arthur’s Halloween, I thought about making one of the spooky sounding snacks that are served at his school. But then I remembered that at the end of the book, when Arthur has faced his fears and made a new friend who lives in a “haunted” house, he is served chocolate donuts and apple cider. While this combination sounds a little strange to me (I think I’d rather have milk or coffee with my donuts) I did want to try out some Halloween donuts and the result is Baked Double Chocolate Donuts. I prefer to make baked donuts, rather than fried. As well as being healthier, there is so much less clean-up with baked donuts, and with this recipe you will hardly notice a difference in the texture. The buttermilk and cocoa powder in the batter bake into donuts that are dense and cake-like. With the addition of a rich chocolate glaze and sprinkles, these donuts are over-the-top flavorful and chocolatley while also being super-easy to make. You can have these donuts on the table in 30 minutes for a fun, quick Halloween morning breakfast.
Baked Double Chocolate Donuts
Lightly butter a 12-cavity donut pan, or 2 6-cavity donut pans. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, buttermilk, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold them together with a rubber spatula, mixing just until combined.
Fill a large ziplock bag with the donut batter and cut a hold in one corner of the bag. Squeeze the donut batter into the prepared pans, filling each cavity about 2/3 full of batter. Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a donut comes out clean. Set donuts aside to cool in the pans for 10 minutes.
While the donuts cool, add the semisweet chocolate, butter, corn syrup and water to a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the chocolate and butter melt and a smooth glaze forms. Remove glaze from the heat.
Once the donuts have cooled, remove them from the pans and set them on a cooling rack. Using a small spatula or spreader, spread about 2 Tablespoons of the chocolate glaze on each donut, allowing some of the glaze to drip down the sides of the donuts. Add sprinkles to the donuts right away, before the glaze sets, if desired.
Ingredients
Directions
Lightly butter a 12-cavity donut pan, or 2 6-cavity donut pans. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, buttermilk, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold them together with a rubber spatula, mixing just until combined.
Fill a large ziplock bag with the donut batter and cut a hold in one corner of the bag. Squeeze the donut batter into the prepared pans, filling each cavity about 2/3 full of batter. Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a donut comes out clean. Set donuts aside to cool in the pans for 10 minutes.
While the donuts cool, add the semisweet chocolate, butter, corn syrup and water to a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the chocolate and butter melt and a smooth glaze forms. Remove glaze from the heat.
Once the donuts have cooled, remove them from the pans and set them on a cooling rack. Using a small spatula or spreader, spread about 2 Tablespoons of the chocolate glaze on each donut, allowing some of the glaze to drip down the sides of the donuts. Add sprinkles to the donuts right away, before the glaze sets, if desired.
