Chocolate holiday cookies (Provided photo — Yvona Fast)

Tamaracks are golden. Leaves are falling. Temps are getting colder. We’re getting much-needed rain. It’s the end of October.

That means … Halloween will be here on Friday, October 31st. Saturday, Nov. 1, is All Saints Day; Sunday, Nov. 2, is All Souls Day. These first days in November honor our deceased and recognize that death is part of life.

But before all that — Wednesday is … National Chocolate Day! The Day was selected by the National Confectioners Association (NCA), a U.S. trade organization, as a tribute to what they believe is man’s greatest culinary invention. Today, it is America’s favorite flavor.

Chocolate comes from the seed of the cacao tree, native to Central America and Mexico. The Mayas and Aztecs drank bitter chocolate and considered it a gift from the gods.

Chocolate was introduced to Europe in the mid-16th century. The first chocolate bar was made in England by Joseph Fry in 1847 by mixing cocoa powder, cocoa butter and sugar. Before that, chocolate was a beverage. You can repeat this process in your kitchen. Melt coconut oil over low heat, then whisk in cocoa powder and a sweetener like sugar or stevia. Pour this into molds or a lined dish and refrigerate until solid.

Dark chocolate is healthy. It is a good source of magnesium, zinc and many antioxidants. Eating a little dark chocolate each day is good for your heart, reducing blood pressure, cholesterol, inflammation and diabetes risk. White chocolate, which is only sugar, cocoa butter and milk solids, does not contain the bitter cocoa and does not have the health benefits of chocolate.

I always think of chocolate as a Valentine’s Day treat … or for Christmas. Halloween means candy — the manufactured kind, not home-made and generally not pure chocolate. October is for caramel and pumpkin flavors — maybe because orange and golden-brown are the colors of autumn.

But the top choice among trick-or-treaters is bite-sized chocolate.

With Christmas in just a couple of months, you can make homemade chocolates or chocolate seed bark to give as gifts.

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Chocolate Holiday Cookies

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Ingredients:

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1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 Tablespoon potato starch or corn starch

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

1 1/2 cup Halloween M & Ms

Candy eyeballs, for garnish

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Directions:

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Remove butter and egg from the fridge so it is room temperature when you’re ready to use them.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. A stand mixer with a paddle attachment works well for this.

Beat in egg and vanilla.

In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, starch, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

Add dry ingredients to the wet and beat well with the mixer. The dough should be a little sticky.

Fold in 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips and 1 cup of Halloween M&M candies. Reserve the rest for garnish.

Drop balls of dough onto the prepared cookie sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with the garnish ingredients — candy eyeballs, M&Ms and chocolate chips.

Place in oven and bake until puffy and soft, about 12 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes. Then remove to a wire rack and cool completely.

Makes one dozen large cookies or two dozen small cookies.

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Homemade Chocolate Bark

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Ingredients:

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1 pound (16 oz.) chocolate

A little salt (1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon)

Additions: About 1 cup total chopped nuts (like almonds, walnuts, etc.), seeds (like sunflower, sesame or pumpkin), dried fruit like raisins, craisins or chopped apricots, crystallized ginger

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Directions:

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Combine chopped nuts, fruit and seeds in a bowl; set aside.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Chop the chocolate fine.

In a microwave-safe glass dish, melt 3/4 of the chocolate at half-power in 30-second increments. Stir with a rubber spatula. Continue to heat and stir in 10-second increments until all the chocolate is melted. Stir in the remaining chocolate and salt.

When everything is melted, spread 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick on the prepared cookie sheet. Flatten with a spatula. Sprinkle with nuts, seeds and fruit mixture. Press these into the chocolate. Allow to cool and harden, then break into pieces and place in gift boxes or bags.

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Easy Homemade Fudge

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Ingredients:

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3 cups chocolate chips

1 1/3 cups (14-ounce can) sweetened condensed milk

dash of salt

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 to 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

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Directions:

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Place chocolate chips in the top part of a double boiler or in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Heat until melted. Stir in milk and salt; stir to combine. Add vanilla and nuts; stir again.

Line an 8×8 or 9×9 square inch pan with wax paper. Pour in contents and spread evenly. Place in refrigerator until firm (about 2 hours).

Lift out of the pan onto a cutting board. Peel off the wax paper, then cut into squares. Store in the refrigerator in a covered container to keep from drying out.

Variations: use mint chips for a mint version or 2 cups Reese’s peanut butter cups for a peanut version (omit chopped nuts).

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Author of the award-winning cookbook Garden Gourmet: Fresh & Fabulous Meals from your Garden, CSA or Farmers’ Market, Yvona Fast lives in Lake Clear and has two passions: writing and cooking. She can be found at www.yvonafast.com and reached at yvonawrite@yahoo.com or on Twitter: @yvonawrites.