Halloween is just around the corner and you have almost everything planned out for your party: a chain of haunted house runs, followed by a Scream movie marathon, a costume contest – maybe you’ll even whip out that creepy Ouija board from elementary school. And of course, eating copious amounts of candy is a given. But no Halloween party is complete without a couple cute yet spooky Halloween-themed treats! Here are a few super creative, delicious treats that are so simple to make it’s scary.
Recipe for image above can be found here.
Spider Cookies:
Transform a regular old cookie into a cute and delicious spider cookie – who knew that was possible? Feel free to bake the cookies yourself, or simply buy plain sugar cookies at your local grocery store. Once you have your cookies, all you need are mini Reese’s Cups, candy eyes, and chocolate chips!
Directions:
Place a Reese’s Cup on your warm cookie, if you baked your own. If you bought your cookies, slightly warm your Reese’s Cups in the microwave for a couple seconds, but make sure they don’t melt! Now, immediately add your candy eyes to the Peanut Butter Cup. Next, melt a bowl of your favorite chocolate chips and with that, draw on the spider legs. To do this, you can either add the melted chocolate chips to a plastic bag with the corner cut, or you can use a toothpick. If you feel like the candy eyes may fall off, use the melted chocolate chips as an adhesive. Your spider cookies are now ready to be devoured – sounds appetizing!
Black Cat Cookies:
These Black Cat cookies are cute, simple to make, and they utilize everyone’s favorite Halloween snack: candy corn. What more could you ask for? I find that the most challenging step in making these cookies is resisting the urge to finish all the candy corn and M&Ms before placing them on the cookies!
Chocolate Cookie Ingredients:
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup softened butter
- 3 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Candy Corn
- M&Ms
Directions:
- Combine sugar and butter in a large bowl and beat at medium speed until well mixed. Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and beat until well mixed.
- Combine all remaining ingredients except candies in medium bowl. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Beat until well mixed.
- Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a ball and flatten to 1/2 inch. Wrap each half in plastic food wrap. Refrigerate until firm – at least 2 hours.
- Heat oven to 350°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface, one-half at a time (keeping remaining dough refrigerated), to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with 3-inch round cookie cutters. Place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
- Using fingers, pinch up ears at top of each circle. Place 2 pieces of candy corn onto cookies for eyes and 1 M&M for nose. Press tines of fork on each side of cookie below eyes to form whiskers.
- Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are set. Let cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire cooling rack.
Recipe here.
Halloween Popcorn:
If you’re really on a time crunch, then this snack is perfect for you. It’s super easy and quick to make, and you most likely already have all these ingredients from the other Halloween snacks you made! You can pretty much add whatever you want to this popcorn treat, but if you’re struggling to come up with ideas – I got you.
Directions:
- Get your favorite brand and flavor of popcorn ready in a bowl.
- Now, add all your candy. This is the fun part – go crazy! The possibilities are limitless. I personally like to add candy corn, M&Ms, crushed chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered raisins, crushed chocolate bars (Kit Kat, Twix, whatever you like!), crushed Oreos/cookies, and Reese’s pieces.
- Drizzle melted chocolate chips, caramel, melted candy corn, and/or any topping you desire onto the popcorn. Add festive, Halloween-themed sprinkles if you like, and you’re done!
Oreo Eyeballs:
Milk’s favorite cookie…transformed into an eyeball. Hey, it’s Halloween, if you can pretend to be someone you’re not for a night, then so can your cookies. Idea from here.
What you need:
- Your favorite kind of Oreos (What up mega stuffed!)
- Gel decorating icing (green and blue were used in the picture above)
- Red gel food coloring or red gel icing
- Black/Brown M&Ms or Reese’s Pieces
- Small paintbrush or toothpick
Directions:
- Split open an Oreo cookie.
- Refrain from devouring the frosting.
- Add a glob of gel icing.
- Place M&M or Reese’s piece on top of the icing.
- Using a paintbrush or toothpick, paint on the red food coloring on top of the frosting so that they resemble red veins.
- Your eyes are now ready to be eaten – how spooky!
Pumpkin Pretzel Bites:
Yes, more M&Ms and chocolate. These adorable pumpkin pretzel bites are perfect for those of you that love a combination of sweet and savory snacks! They’re almost too pretty to eat, but the extreme burst of flavors that attacks your mouth when you taste one might drive you to eat them all before your party even starts. Idea from here.
Ingredients:
- Pretzel Snaps
- Orange and Green M&M Minis (or Reese’s Pieces)
- Hershey’s Kisses
Directions:
- Place pretzels on plate.
- Add a Hershey kiss onto each one.
- Heat in the microwave. You want to make sure the chocolate isn’t completely melted or dripping, but warm enough to be able to press the M&Ms onto the surface.
- Add your mini orange M&Ms onto the chocolate kiss. About 7 will do.
- Finally, add a single green M&M at the top as your pumpkin stem (see picture).
Witch Brooms:
This snack is perfect if you’re running really low on time but want a quick, cute snack to add to your dessert table… And if you’re in love with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
All you need are mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and stick pretzels. Simply stick the pretzel into the Reese’s Cup and you have your witch broom-but not for long!
Donut Spiders:
Ah yes, another spider dessert. Even if spiders scare the crap out of you, this Halloween treat is just way too cute not to make! If the very idea of eating spiders still freaks you out, then that’s perfect – I mean that’s what Halloween is for, right?! Idea from here.
Ingredients:
- Large pretzel twists
- Mini donuts
- M&Ms
- Melted chocolate chips or frosting
Directions:
- Using a knife, cut the pretzels so that they are “C” shaped.
- Push 8 of your pretzel curves into the top of the mini donut. These are your spider legs.
- Stick 2 M&Ms onto the donut for the spider eyes, using either melted chocolate or frosting as your adhesive.
- Your donut spiders are ready to be eaten! Or scare away your arachnophobic guests.
Happy Halloween!