These Halloween Cookies are fun, delicious, easy and require no chilling time of the dough. Soft chocolatey cookies studded with colored chocolate chips, candy eyeballs and nuts. These are a HIT with kids and adults, and the best way to celebrate Spooky season! Video below!
We LOVE Halloween at our home! It’s my kids favorite holiday, and hence became mine. It also happens to be my dad’s birthday so there’s definitely much to celebrate and bake for! His favorite every year are those Easy Candy Apples!
Today’s Halloween Cookies Recipe is another crowd pleasing treat for anyone who loves chocolate. Much like those Brownie Cookies, these cookies are soft and melt in your mouth with a rich chocolate flavor.
Why You’ll LOVE these Halloween Cookies
- Soft and melt in your mouth cookies.
- Intensely chocolatey!
- No chilling of the dough required, so start to finish is a 20 minute process!
- Easy one bowl recipe
- No icing or fancy decorating skills required
- They’re studded with Halloween themed M&Ms like orange, yellow green and brown
- For more spooky vibe, we added candy eyeballs!
- Kids can help and bake them with you–they’re that easy to make!
- Make a great option for Halloween block party or spooky movie night
- The chocolate cookie base can be used without the spo0ky add-ins so it can be your go to chocolate cookie!
Cookie Ingredients:
- Butter. We use unsalted butter so we can control the salt in our cookies. Room temperature butter is a MUST for easy creaming.
- Sugar. For sweetness and for a soft cookie!
- Egg. To bind the cookie well, also room temperature is preferred.
- Vanilla. To accentuate the flavors.
- Salt. To enhance the chocolate flavor!
- Flour. All purpose flour measured well.
- Cocoa Powder. Dark Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder is what we use here for flavor.
- Baking soda. To make the cookies fluffy and puffed up.
- Chocolate chips. We love M&M’s Halloween themed colors!
- Nuts. Optional, our family loves hazelnuts.
- Candy eyeballs. Spooky effect and extra sweetness!
How to Make Halloween Cookies
- First you’ll need to gather the dry ingredients in a medium size bowl. This includes whisking together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Whisking those separately in a bowl will make incorporating them to the cookie batter much easier.
- The soft butter and sugar are added to a large bowl, which will be used to the cookie batter. A mixer or stand mixer can be used here to cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
- In about 3 minutes, the mixture should look fluffy and lighter in color as shown above.
- Using the same mixer, add in the egg and vanilla. You’ll need to mix mix them in again until well incorporated. Scrape the bowl as needed to make sure all your ingredients are mixed well.
- At that point you’ll mix lightly to avid any splattering, or switch to a spatula and make sure you’re blending the dry ingredients well into the creamed butter and sugar bowl. At that point, you’re ready to go in with your spooky add-ins.
- Halloween themed candies, hazelnuts and candy eye balls are our favorite ways to spook up these halloween cookies!
Shaping Cookies
- An ice cream scoop is our ABSOLUTE favorite way to get even cookies. Now only are they even in shape, size and looks, but they also bake evenly so it’s less worry during baking! This is a 2 inch ice cream scoop which is great for a 3 inch cookie once baked.
- You can totally bake the cookies as they are right now, or better off what we LOVE to do is take each and roll it with our hands. This creates prettier and more even rounded cookies–however it’s completely an optional step. See below for how that looks like.
Baking Cookies
- At that point the cookies are ready to bake! You can add extra pieces of eyeball candy, M&Ms or nuts on the top or surface as you want right before baking, or bake right away. These babies bake for ONLY 10 minutes and they come perfect!
- Look at those beauties!!! Soft and Spooky Halloween Cookies right out of the oven. SO GOOD!
Look at this spooky setup, so cool!
Halloween Cookies TIPS
- Use room temperature butter and eggs for best results.
- Mixing in the dry ingredients in a separate bowl makes blending them in the batter a much easier process later on.
- Don’t rush the process of creaming the butter, you’ll need to beat it for about 3 minutes on high speed until light in color and fluffy in texture. This makes for softer cookies.
- Dutch processed cocoa powder if what we use with any chocolate cake or cookie as it offers a clean chocolate taste.
- Don’t over mix your cookie batter when adding the flour mix into the butter bowl.
- Add in as many or as little of the add-ins as you prefer.
- An ice cream scoop is a great way to ensure even cookies and hence even baking.
- We love rolling the cookies after scooping for a smooth round shape.
- Feel free to add extra chocolate chips once the cookies are rolled and just before baking.
- Bake the cookies for 10 minutes (more if you’re making them into larger cookies, and less if you’re shaping them into smaller cookies). The edges will be set while the centers will still be soft, DO NOT over-bake them.
- Once our of the oven, allow the cookies to cool on the baking tray, untouched for about 5-7 minutes before removing them.
- Storage info, variations, and more cookie tips below.
How to Store Halloween Cookies?
These soft cookies remain soft and can be stored at room temperature in an airtight sealed container for up to 5 days. Make sure to have the cookies completely cool before storing them.
Can I freeze these cookies?
There are two ways to freeze this, either freeze balls of scooped out cookie dough on the baking sheet and then bake as needed (adding 3-4 minutes of extra baking time). Alternatively, you can freeze the baked cookies and let them come to room temperature before serving. You can rewarm them for 2 minutes in the oven.
Variations and Mix-ins
For the spooky theme we used the Halloween colored M&Ms, however you can use any regular M&Ms. You can also add milk or dark chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter cups or dried fruit.
Can these be made into Halloween Cookie Bars?
You can make this recipe into bars by following the recipe exactly as is. Use an 8 inch square pan, and line that with parchment paper. At that point you’re going to spread the batter evenly in the square pan, pressing down to make sure it’s evenly spread. Add extra chocolate chips on the tops if you’d like and bake it for 25 minutes until the edges have set.
How to keep the halloween cookies soft?
This works with any cookie recipe and it’s the same concept as keeping brown sugar soft in the container. Add a piece of toast bread or tortilla at the bottom of the container where you’re storing the cookies.
Easy Chocolate Recipes
Chocolate Banana Chocolate Chip Cake
Easy Mini Black Forest Cupcakes
Double Chocolate Date Zucchini Bread
Halloween Cookies
These Halloween Cookies are fun, delicious, easy and require no chilling time of the dough. Soft chocolatey cookies studded with colored chocolate chips, candy eyeballs and nuts. These are a HIT with kids and adults, and the best way to celebrate Spooky season! Video below!
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1/2 cup Cocoa Powder Dutch Processed
- 1 cup Flour all purpose
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup butter unsalted, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Add-ins
- 1 cup chocolate chips M&Ms Halloween themed
- 1/2 cup nuts
- 1/3 cup candy eyeballs
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
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In a small bowl, add the dry ingredients first and mix them well. Cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and salt.
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In another larger bowl, add the butter and sugar and start beating using an electric mixer or kitchen machine.
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You'll need to beat them for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
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At that point add the egg and vanilla and continue beating until well mixed.
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Then finally, add in the cocoa powder and flour bowl which is premixed.
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Mix on low speed, or switch to a spatula and blend the batter until it forms a soft homogenous texture. Add in the add-ins--more or less to your taste.
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Take an ice cream scoop 2 inch size and scoop out 12 scoops of the batter into a parchment lined baking sheet.
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You can optionally take each scoop of cookie dough and roll it between your hands for a smooth round shape.
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bake the cookies for 10-11 minutes until the edges are set but the centers are still soft.
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Let the cookies cool on their cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing them.
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Serve right away and enjoy.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Halloween Cookies TIPS
- Use room temperature butter and eggs for best results.
- Mixing in the dry ingredients in a separate bowl makes blending them in the batter a much easier process later on.
- Don't rush the process of creaming the butter, you'll need to beat it for about 3 minutes on high speed until light in color and fluffy in texture. This makes for softer cookies.
- Dutch processed cocoa powder if what we use with any chocolate cake or cookie as it offers a clean chocolate taste.
- Don't over mix your cookie batter when adding the flour mix into the butter bowl.
- Add in as many or as little of the add-ins as you prefer.
- An ice cream scoop is a great way to ensure even cookies and hence even baking.
- We love rolling the cookies after scooping for a smooth round shape.
- Feel free to add extra chocolate chips once the cookies are rolled and just before baking.
- Bake the cookies for 10 minutes (more if you're making them into larger cookies, and less if you're shaping them into smaller cookies). The edges will be set while the centers will still be soft, DO NOT over-bake them.
- Once our of the oven, allow the cookies to cool on the baking tray, untouched for about 5-7 minutes before removing them.
- Storage info, variations, and more cookie tips below.
How to Store Halloween Cookies?
These soft cookies remain soft and can be stored at room temperature in an airtight sealed container for up to 5 days. Make sure to have the cookies completely cool before storing them.
Can I freeze these cookies?
There are two ways to freeze this, either freeze balls of scooped out cookie dough on the baking sheet and then bake as needed (adding 3-4 minutes of extra baking time). Alternatively, you can freeze the baked cookies and let them come to room temperature before serving. You can rewarm them for 2 minutes in the oven.
Variations and Mix-ins
For the spooky theme we used the Halloween colored M&Ms, however you can use any regular M&Ms. You can also add milk or dark chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter cups or dried fruit.
Can these be made into Halloween Cookie Bars?
You can make this recipe into bars by following the recipe exactly as is. Use an 8 inch square pan, and line that with parchment paper. At that point you're going to spread the batter evenly in the square pan, pressing down to make sure it's evenly spread. Add extra chocolate chips on the tops if you'd like and bake it for 25 minutes until the edges have set.
How to keep the halloween cookies soft?
This works with any cookie recipe and it's the same concept as keeping brown sugar soft in the container. Add a piece of toast bread or tortilla at the bottom of the container where you're storing the cookies.
I made these with the kids and they LOVED them! Especially the fun eyeballs!
These are such a fun and festive treat that do not disappoint! Turned out easy, moist and delicious; looking forward to making these again for Halloween!
These turned out so cute and delicious! I can’t wait to make them again.
Best Halloween treat. Looks perfect. Thanks for sharing.
These are so fun and so easy to make, we loved them!