halloween

Halloween Candy Cookie Bars


Halloween was a week ago but I bet you still have tons of candy left over! Last year I made candy cookies, this year, I simplified it and made cookie bars! Much quicker to make than individual cookies but tastes just as good 🙂 So grab that candy bowl and let’s get baking…

What you will need: 

9 inch square bake pan, greased
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Dash of salt
1 cup unsalted butter at room temp
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Halloween candy. About 1 cup. We used Reece’s pieces, snickers, butterfingers and M&M’s but use what you have! And cut the bars to smaller pieces.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In another large bowl, beat butter and both sugars until creamy and smooth. Add in the eggs and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in candy.

Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly and smooth the top. Bake for about 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before cutting and digging in! Store covered at room temperature. Enjoy!

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Halloween Cat Cookies

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Need a fun, easy Halloween activity? Make these cute and delicious cookies! So simple to do, my 4 year old son had a blast helping me! Just don’t forget, cooking and baking with kids can get messy so bring your patience and have fun! I found this recipe on Pinterest and it is from landolakes.com.

Note: This recipe can easily be doubled!

What you will need:

Cookie sheet lined with parchment paper

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Dash of salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Round cookie cutter
Candy corn for eyes
I used Reese’s Mini’s for the nose but you really can use whatever round candy you want

Note: I know 1 1/2 eggs is odd, but Liam ended up dropping 1 and made it easy for me to measure out 🙂 An easier way is to whisk an egg and just pour in half and save the rest for an omelet or something.

Here’s Liam helping me!

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Slowly stir in flour mixture until just combined.

Divide mixture into 2 rounds and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take one of the dough rounds out of fridge. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to be about 1/4 inch thick. Place on prepared cookie sheet and decorate!

Here’s my goof having fun making cat faces 🙂

To make the whiskers, use the tines of a fork. Also, be sure not to press too hard with the candy. We’ve had a few eye balls melt because they were too close to the cookie sheet when baking.

Bake for 7-10 minutes. Allow to cool a minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

Spider Cookies


Oh, Halloween. I adore you! And I adore these cookies! Sometimes pumpkin recipes get a little overwhelming this time of year so I wanted to do a fun but still delicious cookie! Super simple, really just a typical chocolate chip cookie recipe but with white chocolate chips and reese’s pieces. Yum. So go ahead and make these for your Halloween gathering! They will not disappoint 😉

What you will need:

Cookie sheet lined with parchment paper

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup Reese’s Pieces (I used mini’s)
Big handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips (for spiders)
1 ounce chocolate (for spiders, I used Baker’s)

In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside. In another large bowl, beat together butter and both sugars until nice and smooth. Add vanilla and eggs and beat until combined. With a spatula, slowly fold in flour mixture until just combined. Do the same with white chocolate and Reese’s. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate while oven preheats.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Depending on how big your cookies are (anywhere from 2-3 tablespoons), bake from 9-11 minutes.

While cookie are baking, melt 1 ounce of chocolate. Baker’s chocolate is usually my chocolate of choice because I never have any problems using the directions on the box for melting it in the microwave. Place melted chocolate in a ziplock bag with a tiny hole cut out of the corner. Allow to cool a few minutes.

As soon as cookies come out of oven, gently press a chocolate chip wherever you want. This is the body of the spider. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Use the melted chocolate for legs. This was my first time doing this so I will definitely be better the next time, but have fun with it! Make your spiders as cute or as big or little as you want.

Store in an airtight container for a few days! Happy Halloween and enjoy!

Halloween Candy Cookies

Halloween is over! But what to do with all that candy? Bake with them, of course! Yes, I do love me some chocolate candy because surprisingly I only eat it once a year (Halloween). But I wanted to make a cookie with some of it, too. So, voila! Very similar to a chocolate chip cookie recipe but instead of chocolate chips you use chopped candy bars. Very yummy and different. So go through your left over candy stash and let’s  bake…

What you will need: 

Cookie sheet lined with parchment paper

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chopped chocolate candy (I used 4 Reece’s, 4 Twix, 4 Snickers and 4 Kit Kat bars, all snack size)

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of your mixer, beat butter, oil and both sugars until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time and then beat in vanilla. Slowly beat in flour until incorporated. Fold in chopped chocolate and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Drop round spoonfuls of cookie dough onto prepared cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes. Let cookies rest on cookie sheet for a minute or 2 before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

 

Sweet and Salty Pumpkin Seeds

Yesterday was the day of pumpkin carving in my household! It is so fun and brings back many good memories of my childhood. However, Liam was grossed out by the pumpkin! I mean, yes, it is pretty nasty, feels weird and smells but I enjoyed myself. And of course I saved the seeds! Last year I made drunken pumpkin seeds, but this year I wanted something simple, sweet and salty. So, go wash your pumpkin seeds and let’s roast!

What you will need:

1 cup washed pumpkin seeds (I got this from 1 medium pumpkin)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees fahrenheit. Place the pumpkin seeds in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for about 30 minutes to dry them out.

Once dry, take out seeds and set your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until all the seeds are coated. Put the seeds back on the parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the seeds are lightly golden brown. Enjoy!

Yum! Such a great snack. And here is our mess from carving…

 

Have fun!