7 Quick Halloween Recipes to Make Hauntingly Mouthwatering Snacks (2024)

Fall is upon us. As the nights get longer and the leaves start to drop from the trees, it’s time to polish the pumpkins, dust the cookies with cinnamon, and get the broomsticks out.

It’s nearly Halloween.

It’s not only an opportunity for kids to go crazy on a sugar rush, but for parents and adults to find their inner child.

Here are some of our favorite ghastly, grim Halloween recipes to get you underway for an epic All Hallow’s Eve.

Enjoy!

Ghoulish Halloween Recipes for Your Parties

Halloween’s foundations were established from the ancient Christian Celtic festival of Samhain.

Samhain is the Irish term for November and the Gaelic marking of the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the darker months in the northern hemisphere.

The Irish believed that the dead could observe the living, but the living could rarely see the dead. They thought that the barrier between the living and the dead was thinnest on Halloween, which was the start of the darkest months.

Today, Halloween has transcended to a time of creepy fun, dress-up, entertainment, and celebration of all things ghoulish. Gather your costumes and decorate the house. Then, think about your Halloween recipes.

I enjoy dreaming up crazy twists to regular staple food this time of year. Often, my kids anticipate some creative flare to food on the 31st of October. They love getting involved in our Halloween recipes.

When time is short in a hectic household, making spooky snacks ahead of time takes the pressure off the day. Many of these can be made in advance, or you can whip them up at the last minute for your Halloween celebration.

1. Zombie Eggs

Hard-boiled eggs decorated as zombies are one of those quick Halloween recipes that you can whip up to provide a nutritional snack.

My kids love these, and they are a guilt-free way of providing a balance to the traditional sugar-loading of Halloween.

Portion-wise, make as many hard-boiled eggs as required for the number of people who will be devouring them. One egg per person gives everyone two halves.

On second thought, maybe make extras for those deviled egg lovers! You can turn leftovers into deviled eggs for the next day.

Preparation time is 30 minutes, including cooking, cooling, and decorating. Told you these were quick! Any leftovers can be easily used in packed lunches or other dishes for days afterward or made into deviled eggs.

Ingredients:

• Eggs
• Green and black food coloring
• Paintbrush
• Water, room temperature
• Saucepan
• Baking soda (optional)

Method:

1. Place whole eggs in cool water on the stove. Turn up the heat and bring the water to a boil. Allow them to cook for eight minutes.

2. If fresh from your own hens, add a teaspoon of baking soda halfway through. This makes for easier de-shelling. Fresh eggs are extremely hard to de-shell.

3. Take the pot off the stove and run cold water over the eggs to stop the cooking process and cool the eggs down. You will be handling them, so the cooler, the better.

4. Using the paintbrush and food coloring, decorate the shells. Let them dry before serving them up. Any premature cracking only adds to the effect.

You can also make them into mummies or bats. Or use orange food coloring to make them into pumpkins. Red food coloring can be used to make vampires. Let your imagination run wild!

2. Bat Blood Muffins

Do you have a problem adding vegetables into the dinner mix over the winter, particularly for those budding Draculas? Try this recipe; no blood involved. Instead, you’ll use beetroot and a dusting of popping candy.

This recipe is easy to convert for intolerances. Make gluten-free chocolate muffins and make the icing red instead of adding candy. You could utilize gluten-free candy eyeballs for extra drama.

This recipe serves 12, and the prep time is one hour. Cooking time is 18-20 minutes.

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

• 1 good-sized fresh beetroot (roughly 10 oz)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 2 oz unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/4 self-raising flour
• 1/4 cup oat bran

For the icing:

• 1/4 cup of softened butter or margarine
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tbsp quality cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• A pinch of salt
• 2 cups of powdered sugar

Method:

1. Place the beetroot in a small to medium saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to allow it to simmer and cook until a fork easily passes through, and the beet drops off the fork. Set aside and let it cool.

2. Preheat the oven to 325°F.

3. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake liners.

4. Peel the cooled beetroot. Wear gloves if you don’t want pink hands.

5. Chop and mash the beetroot. If you have a food processor, pop it in and create a puree. Add the sugar, cocoa powder, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla essence with the beetroot and combine well.

6. Mix together the prepared beetroot with the flour and oat bran.

7. Spoon out the yummy mixture into the cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 minutes or until cooked through.

8. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool thoroughly.

9. Prepare the topping.

Make The Topping

1. Mix 1/4 cup of softened butter or margarine, 1/4 cup milk, 2 tbsp quality cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp vanilla essence, and a pinch of salt to 2 cups of powdered sugar.

2. Mix together well. If it’s too runny, carefully add more sugar. Ideally, you want a stiff mixture. Otherwise, it’ll run everywhere on the muffins.

3. Using a piping bag or spoon, place the icing mixture on top of each muffin.

4. Before the icing sets, sprinkle with red popping candy.

3. Mummified Munchies

There are a couple of ways you can achieve mummification of sausages. You can use any sausage or vegan meat, and wrap it in bacon, puff pastry, or a suitable substitute.

This is a super quick snack to prepare and is excellent hot or cold. It’s one of those Halloween recipes that will have people coming back for more.

Ingredients

• 12 sausages
• Bacon and/or puff pastry cut into strips
• Dried currants or raisins
• Tomato sauce

Method

1. Cook the sausages in a pan.

2. Preheat the oven to about 400°F while you let them cool. You’ll need to handle them.

3. Wrap the strips of puff pastry around the sausages like a bandage. If you want, you can wrap them in bacon instead, or wrap them in bacon first and then pastry. You can even intertwine the two. Place them onto a baking sheet.

4. Cook in the preheated oven until done, with a little bit of crispness to the wrapping.

5. Before they cool, insert raisins or dried currants as eyes and a mouth.

6. Add some tomato sauce for a gruesome dip.

4. Spooky Meringues

Spooky meringues are a creepy but fabulous addition to Halloween parties for all ages.

Generally, they will keep for up to 3 days at room temperature, and if you run out of candy for those trick-or-treaters, these could fill the gap.

Word of advice, though. You will need an empty oven for a few hours to do this recipe justice.

Ingredients:

• 4 large egg whites
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp clear vanilla extract (optional)
• Small candies for eyes

Method:

1. While preheating the oven to 200°F, line a baking sheet with a liner (silicone or parchment paper).

2. Separate the yolk from the egg whites.

3. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and, if using, the clear vanilla essence. Beat until a frothy consistency.

4. Slowly add the sugar to this mixture. Be careful not to put too much in at once, as you want air to circulate to maintain the fluffy consistency.

5. Mix at medium to high intensity for about 6 minutes or until stiff peaks form.

6. Spoon the mixture carefully into a piping bag or a zip lock bag with a small hole cut in one corner. Again, be careful not to flatten the air within the mixture.

7. Pipe swirls of mixture onto the parchment paper or silicone liner.

8. Add the candy eyes to each mound.

9. Bake for approximately 1.5 hours or until the mixture has hardened. It’s worth keeping an eye on them as cooking times can differ depending on the size.

10. Try to avoid removing the trays early. To maintain their consistency and form it’s important to allow them to cool in the oven for a few hours. Just remember to turn off the oven.

Do not worry if they crack; this can add to their authenticity as a spooky snack. This is one of those Halloween recipes that can be adapted in many ways. You could use food coloring to turn the meringues green or draw a skeleton on them.

5. Tomb of Toffee Apples

It wouldn’t really be Halloween without some apple component, given its symbol as the end of the harvests.

Fairgrounds aside, who doesn’t love an apple covered in sugar? This should definitely be one of your standard Halloween recipes.

This recipe makes four servings, so if you require more, double it.

The preparation time is roughly 30 minutes.

You will need some sturdy lollipop sticks that will hold the apples and, optionally, a few muffin tins (I’ll explain why shortly).

Here’s a major Halloween recipes twist to the regular toffee apple. You won’t be disappointed.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups white chocolate to melt (remember to double all ingredients if more servings are needed)
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 4 apples (Granny Smith or similar)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp milk
• Black food coloring
• 2 tbsp corn syrup

Method:

1. Melt together the coconut oil and white chocolate.

2. Insert the lollipop sticks now, as it can get really messy otherwise.

3. Dip each apple in the melted mixture and place each apple, stick side up, on a baking tray lined with parchment. You could also place them in parchment-lined muffin tins. This will stop the spread of the mixture while it hardens and will be much easier to remove from the apple than parchment sheets.

4. Refrigerate for 10 minutes or until the apple casing is hard.

5. Mix together the corn syrup, milk, powdered sugar, and food coloring.

6. Using a piping bag or zip lock bag, pipe a skeleton, vampire, or zombie face on the hardened chocolate surface.

7. Allow to set for another 10 minutes or more before displaying or serving.

6. Monster Marshmallows

This extremely simple, horrific hack will have you indulging in monster marshmallows. You can always get the kids to participate by decorating them as a Halloween activity.

Grab some jumbo marshmallows, candy melts, sprinkles, food coloring pens, and candy eyes. You’ll also need some blunt wooden skewers or lollipop sticks.

Looking for one of those quickie Halloween recipes with a significant impact? Preparation time isn’t something to worry about here, particularly if it’s the kids doing it. Just have fun.

Method:

1. Place marshmallows onto the skewers or lollipop sticks.

2. Melt the candy for approximately 60 seconds. This step is not one for the kids to do as it can make for a hot mess if not done carefully.

3. Once the bowl of melted candy dip the prepared marshmallows into the candy melt solution. It’s well worth again supervising the kids with this step, as over-eager monster creators can forget the hot factor.

4. Let them dry and harden before unleashing imaginations.

5. Go wild, decorate, and create some wicked monsters.

7. Doomed Doughnuts

Often, we fill our calendars with spooky invites to friends for dinner, have trick-or-treaters knocking, or bring a plate to parties you attend. But we don’t always have time for complicated Halloween recipes.

If you want to do something sweet, spooky, and are short of time, this Halloween hack is for you.

Grab some doughnuts; red or cream-filled is best for this. You can go with mini donuts or standard-sized, depending on the number of guests.

Other Ingredients

• Chocolate drops for melting. Enough to cover the number of doughnuts.
• Candy eyes and features, such as bat wings, teeth, and licorice sticks.

Melt the chocolate and cover one side of each doughnut.

As the chocolate cools, decorate as vampire bats, spiders, and monsters.