Halloween Treats & Eats

Liddabit Sweets 
Saturdays at the Fort Greene Brooklyn Flea Market 
(In the schoolyard at the corner of Lafayette & Clermont.) 
www.liddabitsweets.com 
Ever had a handmade candy bar?  Neither had I until I stopped by the Brooklyn Flea Market.  Liddabit’s candy bars make ordinary Halloween candy seem like child's play.   Nobody's debating the merits of a Snickers or Milky Way Bar, but they're not the healthiest or most original snacks.  Liddabit's gourmet bars are all made by hand with local ingredients.   For Halloween, they've created a stellar Pecan bar and Pumpkin Pie bar.   The pecan bar has a pie crust bottom topped with pecan dulce de leche, bourbon ganache, and a coating of dark chocolate.  It's intense.  The pumpkin pie is made with spiced pumpkin caramel ganache, marshmallow fluff, a pie crust base, and enrobed in dark chocolate.   Grown up boys might like the beer & pretzel bar or hard cider caramels.

Vosges 
132 Spring St., between Greene & Wooster Sts. 
(212) 625-2929 
www.vosgeschocolate.com 
Vosgues may be a French chocolatier, but they're celebrating Halloween "Oaxacan style" with three chocolate Day of the Dead skulls.  These are superior quality skulls, made with a Mexican blend of cinnamon, ancho and chipotle chiles.    The other flavors are Barcelona (hickory smoked almonds with grey sea salt,) and Bianca, made with pure Venezuelan white chocolate. 

Bouchon Bakery 
Time Warner Center 
10 Columbus Circle, 3rd Floor 
(212) 823-9366 
www.bouchonbakery.com  
Thomas Keller's really gotten into the spirit this year.  So much so that he's transformed his signature TKO -- a heavenly oreo -- into a chocolate bat with a orange-tinted cream filling.  There's also sugar cookies with chocolate spiders and web icing.   There's even a spicy pumpkin pie macaron.

Primula Tea

primulatea.com

For an elegant and civilized Halloween at home, there's Primula's hand blown glass tea pot in the shape of a pumpkin.  Even better, there's a pumpkin flowering tea that blooms when you add hot water to the tea pot and emits an enchanting pumpkin fragrance.  If you didn't know, pumpkin is known to be an aphrodisiac, so you might consider brewing for a very adult Halloween at home.  The pumpkin-shaped tea pot with flowers teas is $29.99.  If you just the want the tea, you can also buy a set of 24 for $19.99.

Wannahavacookie 
www.wannahavacookie.com 
If you're not a chocolate fiend, you might consider Wannahavacookie's apple pie a la mode sandwich cookie.  It's soft, chewy and studded with apple bits.  The filling is a classic vanilla buttercream.  You can buy them at the Brooklyn Flea Market in Fort Greene or online.    

Momofuku Milk Bar 
207 2^nd Ave. at 13^th St.(212) 254-3500 
www.momofuku.com  
If you're too old to ring doorbells, you can still get dressed up and stop at Milk Bar for the candy bar pie, which is a little like a Snickers bar on steroids.  It features a chocolate crust filled with caramel and peanut butter nougat.  The final touch is a pretzel and chocolate crunch topping.

Beppe 
45 E. 22^nd St. 
(212) 982-8422 
www.beppenyc.com 
The owners of Beppe must take Halloween really seriously because they're celebrating for an entire week with a special, “Menu della Strega.”   They're not saving the treats for dessert.  Ever had foie gras in a jolly rancher reduction?  Or rack of lamb in a chocolate bar BBQ sauce?   That's what's on the menu. For dessert,  you'll be nibbling on ossi di morti (bones of the dead cookies.)   It does sound scary.

Roni Sue’s Chocolates

Essex St. Market 
Corner of Essex & Delancey Sts. 
(212) 260-0421 
www.roni-sue.com 
Roni Sue has a reputation for concocting unusual sweets, like chocolate-covered bacon strips and maple bacon lollipops.   For fall, they’ve come up with traditional truffles in flavors like pumpkin pie, cranberry and pomegranate.  Also part of the mix: caramel apple, portly fig and pecan pie.   While you're there,  get the BaCorn — honey caramel corn specked with candied bacon and toasted chile pignoli nuts. 

Le Souk Harem 
510 LaGuardia Pl., between Bleecker & Houston Sts. 
(212) 677-1120 
www.lesoukharem.com  
If you don't know what to be for Halloween, Le Souk Harem's already decided for you.  They're throwing an Arabian-themed party with an Arabian circus and pumpkin martinis served in hollowed-out pumpkins.

 
Shake Shack 
E 23^rd St. at Madison Ave. 
(212) 889-6600 
www.shakeshacknyc.com 
It must be fate that Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, because Shake Shack's pumpkin spice flavor is offered every Saturday this month.   Yes, it really is worth waiting in line for this dense pumpkin custard flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg.   If you can't make it on Halloween day,  stop in Sunday for the cinnamon apple pie which comes in a close second.

Fitzpatrick Manhattan Hotel 
687 Lexington Ave., between 56^th & 57t Sts. 
(212) 355-0100 
www.fitzpatrickhotels.com  
The Fitzpatrick Hotels prefers Irish high tea to the British tea tradition.   This year, there'll be a “Fitzoween” afternoon tea that doesn't cost much more than tea and a scone at Starbuck's.  For nine dollars, guests can snack on pumpkin scones and cinammon spice tea.