Halloween may be all about candy, but what about those of us that are a bit past our trick-or-treating prime?
Whether you are hosting a Halloween bash or participating in a Halloween-themed bake sale, here are 25 different festive Halloween cookie recipes that you’re going to want to take a bite out of.
Easy Halloween Recipes Ideas You Should Try This Year
Caramel Apple
Halloween season shares its time of the year with apple season, and we’re not complaining about that. Apples might not be your first choice for a cookie ingredient, but if you choose to incorporate apples in your recipes, you won’t be disappointed. This wonderfully unique caramel apple cookie recipe shows you how to make soft and chewy cookies with deliciously sweet icing and roasted pecans. It uses granny smith apples, but you can use any kind of apples (if you can pick them at the orchard yourself, even better).
Toffee Crunch Pumpkin
While apples are great, we are of course going to have to focus some recipe ideas that incorporate pumpkin, the most popular fall food of all. We have a few different pumpkin recipes up our sleeve, but the first one that we are going to share is this recipe for toffee crunch pumpkin cookies. Soft, sweet, and tender, these are a must for any pumpkin lover.
Pumpkin Spice Meringues
Okay, so maybe a meringue isn’t exactly a cookie in the true sense of the word, but we wanted to share a few different options in this article. These easy meringues use vibrant hues of orange and green to create a treat that looks just like a little pumpkin. The perfect choice if you’re hosting a holiday party or attending a dinner party and want to impress a group of guests with your baking skills. Hint: it might be helpful to have an egg separation tool for this recipe (you’re gonna need to use a lot of egg whites).
Dark Chocolate
Here’s one for the chocolate lovers among us. These orange and black cookies make use of the classic Halloween color scheme to create a cookie that is truly delectable. These cookies are super chocolatey, thanks to the addition of dark chocolate chips and cocoa powder. You can use orange candy chocolates to give it that extra touch of Halloween spirit. These look like something straight out of a bakery.
Spooky Spider
If you’re cooking for kids, you are going to want to make sure your dessert is extra fun. And it doesn’t get much more fun than spooky spider cookies. This recipe shows you how you can make cookies that resemble spiders by making use of a mini chocolate peanut butter cup and chocolate drizzle (just make sure you screen your guests for a peanut allergy first before serving).
Bobbing Apples
Bobbing for apples is a classic Halloween activity. Fortunately, even if you are not keen on sticking your head in a tub of apples, there are other ways that you can pay homage to this fun pastime. It’ll take a bit of skill to pull off the icing designs that are seen here, but once you get the hang of it, its look is distinctive and sure to bring joy to your guests.
Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip
It was only a matter of time before we mentioned pumpkin spice. Love it or hate it, there is no denying that pumpkin spice is a classic part of autumn. There’s a lot of pumpkin spice cookie recipes out there, but we especially like this one—it uses chocolate chips to add a bit of texture and taste.
Halloween Sprinkle
Who doesn’t love sprinkles? A heartless individual, that’s who. Sprinkles aren’t just for kids’ birthday cakes and bakery donuts—this recipe proves that they are also for Halloween treats. This is one of the easiest recipes on this list and doesn’t take a lot of decorating skill (you can let the sprinkles do the heavy lifting).
Brown Butter Pumpkin
Brown butter pumpkin: the name itself is enough to make us go “mmm”. If you are looking for something sweet and classic that isn’t too over-the-top, then you’re going to want to take a look at this recipe for brown butter pumpkin cookies.
Spiders
Here is another option for spider cookies! It’s similar to the one that we have listed above, except this uses round chocolates as opposed to peanut butter cups. It’s a good alternative for guests who have allergies or for guests who prefer the taste of milk chocolate.
Pumpkin Cut Out
These pumpkin cut-out sugar cookies are absolutely adorable. They also look a lot more complicated than they are, which is good news for beginner bakers. It’s all in the icing, so make sure that you have a decent icing bag with attachments.
Pumpkins
When you think of Halloween cookies, what is the first image that comes to mind? It’s probably a vision of orange and black pumpkin cookies. You can find out how to make the most classic of all the Halloween cookies by following the recipe here.
Mummies
Mummies are one of the more underrated Halloween characters if we do say so ourselves. This recipe uses Oreo cookies and icing to make mummies that dare we say, are actually really cute? Check it out for yourself here.
Easy Cut-Out Cookies
Some of us are just not comfortable with baking intricate recipes. That doesn’t mean that we can’t show up to the party with jaw-dropping homemade cookies! Sometimes it’s just about finding the right cut-out (or stencil) and then decorating that accordingly. This recipe will show you how to make delicious cookies using stencils that you can find at a baking or grocery store.
Monster Mash
In the mood for dancing the monster mash? You’re gonna need some fuel to give you energy. Why not keep on theme and fill up on some monster mash cookies? You’re gonna need a lot of food coloring and sprinkles to pull off this recipe because it’s very fun and colorful.
Vegan Pumpkin
Offering a vegan cookie option at your party is a great way to be inclusive and ensure that every guest can enjoy a sweet treat. This recipe shows you how you can make festive and delicious pumpkin cookies using only vegan ingredients.
Happy Little Ghosts
Boo! Ghosts are practically the official Halloween mascot, and they can come in many shapes and sizes, from spooky to creepy to friendly. These ghost cookies are of a friendly variety, which makes them appropriate for guests of every age.
Bats
Bats are associated with Halloween, likely because they tend to come out at night and live in caves (and a lot of people find both of those things quite spooky). We happen to have an adorable recipe for bat cookies. You can find it here. It can be tricky to make that elusive black icing, so pay close attention to the recipe!
Candy Bar Pretzel
If you’re a fan of the salty/sweet mix, then this recipe is for you. It’s full of delicious ingredients like pretzels, peanuts, chocolate chips, and peanut butter. Talk about a variety of tastes and textures!
Dracula Dentures
Okay, these ones are a little bit gross—but if your kids are of a certain age, “gross” might be exactly what they’re after. This is a creative idea that uses cookies, icing, and marshmallows to give the appearance of Dracula’s dentures (and if you know anything about vampires, you know how important their teeth are).
Halloween Whoopie Pies
We’re a big fan of the classic southern dessert, the whoopie pie. This whoopie pie recipe is tailored for the Halloween season, which means that you can enjoy this delicious dessert all year long.
Gingerbread Skeletons
Gingerbread cookies aren’t just for Christmas! It’s just that instead of making gingerbread men, you can make yourself gingerbread skeletons. It’s a simple and genius idea—see for yourself here.
Soft Maple
The autumn season is not exactly the prime time for maple syrup collection (that tends to happen in the winter and the fall), but maple pairs so wonderfully with other common fall ingredients like ginger or cinnamon. You can’t go wrong with serving a soft maple cookie at your Halloween party. Check it out here.
Nutmeg Leaves
The beautiful autumn leaves serve as the inspiration for these nutmeg-infused cookies. These are the perfect accompaniment to tea time. These use a variety of fall-inspired colors like brown, orange, and yellow, but you can really paint them any color that you would like.
Eyeball Cookies
Let’s leave this list on a spooky note. We present to you eyeball cookies! It may seem unsettling to eat something that resembles an eyeball, but we bet that you will change your mind as soon as you taste these.
Which of the above recipes are you going to use for your Halloween party? Are you going to choose something spooky or cute? No matter which style you choose, all of the above recipes are bound to have at least one thing in common: they’re all delicious.
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