There are loads of creative recipes to make with children for Halloween. We always have a baking class the week before Halloween to give kids some fun ideas for different treats to bring to a Halloween party. Here are some of our favorite recipes that are a festive and fun way to spend time in the kitchen with children.
Chocolate Hazelnut Witch Hat Cookies
1¾ cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ cup chocolate hazelnut spread (recommended: Nutella)
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup orange sprinkles, or orange sugar
1 (9-ounce) package of chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped
Preheat the oven to 375° F.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In another medium bowl, place the chocolate hazelnut spread, butter, and both sugars. Using a hand mixer, cream the ingredients together, about 3 minutes.
Add the egg and vanilla and blend until incorporated. Stir in the dry ingredients, just until incorporated.
Shape the cookie dough into walnut-sized balls. Rolls the balls in the orange sprinkles or orange sugar, pressing to adhere.
Place the cookies on a heavy cookie sheet about 4 inches apart. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven.
Quickly place a chocolate kiss in the middle of each cookie. Return the cookies to the oven and bake for another 3 minutes.
Cool the cookies on a wire rack.
Makes 36-40 cookies.
Boo-scotti
These are a fun way to turn a traditional cookie into a Halloween treat.
Biscotti:
1 ¼ cups sugar
½ cup Butter softened
3 large Eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup salted peanuts, finely chopped
Coating:
1 (16-ounce) package vanilla candy coating Decorations:
candy eyes or mini chocolate chips for eyes and mouth
Heat oven to 375˚
Combine sugar and butter in bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; continue beating until well mixed. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Stir in peanuts.
Divide dough in half; shape each half into 13-inch log. Place 4 inches apart onto greased cookie sheet. Flatten each log to 2-inch width. Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned and set. Cool 10 minutes.
Heat oven to 325˚.
Carefully place logs onto cutting surface. Cut logs diagonally into ½ -inch slices with serrated knife. Arrange slices, cut-side down, onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes, turning once, or until crisp. Remove to cooling rack; cool completely.
Melt candy coating in heavy 2-quart saucepan over low heat. Dip half of each cookie into melted candy coating. Lightly shake off excess coating; place onto waxed paper. Decorate immediately before coating sets. Let stand until coating is set.
Spider Cupcakes
1 recipe chocolate cupcakes (recipe follows) or one box mix of chocolate cake
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Chocolate sprinkles or mini chocolate chips
48 candy eyes
thin black licorice (3 inches)
- Prepare cake mix batter according to package directions or use your favorite chocolate cake recipe
- Fill 24 paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350° for 21-26 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
- For frosting, in a small saucepan, combine the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla.
- Cool to 110°. Transfer to a large bowl. Beat until thickened and mixture begins to lose its gloss, about 8 minutes.
- Frost top of cupcake. Dip cupcakes in chocolate sprinkles or mini chocolate chips. Place a dab of frosting on each candy eyeball and press on to cupcakes.
- For spider legs, use a metal or wooden skewer to poke four holes on opposite sides of cupcakes; insert a piece of licorice into each hole.
Yield: 2 dozen.
Chocolate Cupcakes
2 cups self rising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3.5 oz. melted chocolate
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs (separated)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup milk
Preheat oven to 350˚
Sift the flour and baking powder and set aside.
Melt the chocolate and cool.
In a clean dry bowl whip the egg whites to a soft peak, set them aside.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy, add egg yolks and beat. Add the chocolate and vanilla extract. Then add, by alternating, your dry ingredients and milk until fully mixed. Fold in the egg whites.
Scoop into lined muffing pans and bake about 20 min.
Makes 18 cup cakes
Magic Pretzel Wands
20 pretzel rods
½ cup chocolate chips
2 tsp. vegetable shortening
Clear sugar sprinkles, star sprinkles, edible glitter, or turbinado or demerara sugar
If you don’t have a double boiler, fashion a makeshift one by putting water inside a medium-large pot and putting another, slightly smaller pot inside.
Melt chocolate and shortening in the smaller pot over medium-low heat, stirring often.
Dip one end of each pretzel rod in the chocolate, twirling to make sure all sides are covered. Gently dip the tip in the sugar and place on wax paper to set. Repeat for each pretzel rod.
Optional: Once set, spray the ends with silver food color mist.
Candy Apple Cupcakes
Cupcakes:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ cups unsweetened applesauce
1 cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
½ cup sour cream
2 large eggs
Glaze:
1 package (14 oz) 50 caramel candies
2 Tb. heavy cream
Ice cream sticks
Red jimmies or sprinkles
Heat oven to 350°. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.
For the cupcakes:
Combine flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl.
Beat applesauce, sugars, butter, sour cream and eggs in a bowl with mixer on low speed just to combine. Beat in flour mixture until well blended.
Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake 30 minutes until a wooden pick inserted in cupcakes comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely.
For the glaze:
Heat caramels in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until melted. Add heavy cream and stir until combined. Cool 2 minutes. Working quickly, while mixture is still warm, spread top of each cupcake with 2 tsp. of glaze. If glaze gets hard to spread, heat on low, stirring until more melted. Insert an ice cream stick into center and top with jimmies or sprinkles. Place in freezer for 5 minutes to set.
Note: Cupcakes should be glazed and served the same day.
These next two recipes are a creative way to use up some of your leftover Halloween Candy.
Trick or Treat Pizza
1 tube (16-1/2 ounces) refrigerated sugar cookie dough or your favorite sugar cookie recipe (recipe follows)
Assorted Halloween candies, unwrapped
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
Let dough stand at room temperature for 5-10 minutes to soften. Press onto an ungreased 14-in. pizza pan. Bake at 350° for 18-22 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool on pan on a wire rack.
Coarsely chop large candies; set aside. In a microwave, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter; stir until smooth. Spread over crust; top with candies. Refrigerate, covered, until chocolate mixture is set. Cut into wedges.
Yield: 16 slices.
Giant Sugar Cookies
1¼ cups flour
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¼ lb. room-temperature butter
¾ cup sugar
½ tsp. vanilla
1 egg
Heat the oven to 325ºF.
Combine the flour, soda and salt.
Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and egg. Stir in the flour mixture.
Drop the dough by level ¼ cup measures onto ungreased baking sheets, 3 cookies per sheet. Bake until cookies are a light golden color, about 15 minutes; the centers will still be pale and a little soft.
Let the cookies stand 1 minute on the baking sheets before removing them to racks.
Variation: cut 16 miniature peanut butter coups into quarters and push eight pieces of the candy into each cookie before baking
Halloween Candy Bark
3 cups chocolate chips of your choice (bittersweet, semisweet, milk)
2 cups assorted candy cut up
candy eye balls
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave, stirring until smooth.
Pour the chocolate onto the parchment paper, and using a spatula, spread it into an even layer about 1/4-inch thick. Sprinkle the chopped candy on top of the chocolate then place the baking sheet in the refrigerator to chill for 30 to 45 minutes until the chocolate has fully hardened.
Remove the bark from the refrigerator and carefully slide it onto a cutting board. Cut the bark into irregularly shaped pieces. Serve immediately or store in an air-tight container in a cool place.
If your kid’s enjoy these recipes consider registering them for one of our upcoming classes. We have a great line up of children’s classes for the upcoming holiday season. Click HERE to see our current schedule.