18 Festive and Spooky Halloween Cookies

Updated August 20, 2019
Credit: Thomas J. Story

Celebrate the spookiest season of the year with one of our favorite Halloween cookie recipes. Whether you're looking for adorable ghosts, gross bugs, or monstrous Frankenstein cookie bars, you can't go wrong with these cute and creepy recipes. 

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Halloween Spider Cookies

Credit: Sara Tane

Halloween Spider Cookies Recipe

Landing somewhere between adorable and slightly spooky, these Halloween spider cookies are sure to fulfill all your creepy-crawly sweet needs for your upcoming Halloween festivities. Using a classic cut-out butter cookie dough keeps the edges of your spider cookies shape neat and clean—no worries about the cookies expanding when they bake. Decorate these Halloween cut-out cookies with black gel icing, royal icing, candy eyes, orangle and black sprinkles, or whatever fun decorations you have on hand. These cookies make for a playful, spooky food craft that grown-ups and kids alike can enjoy.

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Ghost Cookies

Credit: Sara Tane

Ghost Cookies Recipe

Prepare for a  sweet scare when these adorable Halloween ghost cookies are all iced, decorated, and ready to party. Super easy and kid-friendly to make, these butter cut-out cookies coated with royal icing are the perfect dessert for your Halloween spread. Candy eyeballs add a playful, whimsical touch to these spooky treats, but you could also use black icing to draw eyes on your ghost cookies. Using a classic cut-out butter cookie dough keeps the edges of your ghost cookies shape neat and clean—no worries about the cookies expanding when they bake. Whip up a batch with the kids and let them go to town with the decorating for a fun Halloween kitchen activity.

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Frankenstein Cookies 

Credit: Darcy Lenz

Frankenstein Cookies  Recipe

Starting with refrigerated, store-bought cookie dough, these cooky Frankenstein cookies are an easy Halloween baking project to whip up this year. That said, packaged cookie dough is made to spread, so if you’d rather your Frankenstein cookies have rectangular or otherwise shaped faces (as opposed to these round-faced cuties), you can use a classic cut-out cookie dough that will better hold its shape. Follow the same method for coloring the dough, and then simply cut it into the shapes you want (freehand or using rectangular cookie cutters). In the recipe below, we provided a suggested path for decorating your Frankenstein cookies, but definitely feel free to go about designing and decorating these tasty little monsters however you please. If you’d rather, you can bake the green cookies plain and decorate as you please using only icing pens once they have cooled. Keep in mind—it’s OK if they’re a little messy, they are monsters after all. 

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Candy Corn Cookies

Credit: Jennifer Davick; Styling: Linda Hirst

Candy Corn Cookies Recipe

Those fancy Halloween slice-and-bake cookies are a breeze to make at home thanks to a little food coloring. And trust us, these candy corn cookies are infinitely more delicious than the Halloween candy they’re inspired by (no offense if you like candy corn). Easy to make and absolutely adorable, these autumn-inspired treats are as perfect to send for the kids’ school Halloween party as they are to bring to your own fall festivities. You can even prep the dough a few days in advance and refrigerate, so that baking off the candy corn cookies is a breeze on the day you plan to eat them. Just follow the recipe through step 3, and be sure to wrap the loaf pan tightly with a few layers of plastic wrap. 

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Monster Cookies

Credit: Sara Tane

Monster Cookies Recipe

They’re not called monster cookies because they’re scary… but they are monstrously delicious. In fact. these chunky, chewy  monster cookies might just be the king of all kitchen sink cookies. Featuring peanut butter, oats, crushed pretzels, M&Ms, and chunks of milk chocolate, they hit every necessary cookie note—chewy, crispy, salty, sweet, chocolatey, and buttery. We opted for miniature M&Ms to use in these decadent monster cookies, as we often regular-size to feel a little clunky in the context of a cookie, but feel free to use whatever size you prefer. In fact, you can customize these kid-friendly oatmeal and peanut butter cookies in any number of ways depending on what you like—swap peanut butter for almond better, switch the pretzels for crushed kettle cooked potato chips, use semisweet chocolate instead of milk chocolate, etc. However you spin your personal batch of monster cookies, one thing’s for sure: Pulling out a platter of these loaded treats will always incite excitement. 

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Haunting Slices

Credit: Oxmoor House

Haunting Slices Recipe

Slicing these cookies is half the fun. You never know what silly or scary expression you will get!

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies with Brown Butter

Credit: Sara Tane

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies with Brown Butter Recipe

Brown butter takes these rich, seasonal pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to the next level, adding a nutty, fragrant flavor that is absolutely perfect for fall. Canned pumpkin puree lends moisture to these fluffy, cake-like treats while warm chocolate chips fill every bite. Make these for a Halloween party or a fall dinner party, and be sure to store any leftovers in an airtight container.

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Jack-o'-lantern Cookies

Jack-o'-lantern Cookies Recipe

How cute are these little pumpkins? They're a labor of love, but these adorable cookies will quickly become a Halloween tradition.

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Black Cats & Bats

Credit: Oxmoor House

Black Cats & Bats Recipe

Don't let these black cats and bats scare you... they are as sweet as can be.

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Witchy Cookies

Witchy Cookies Recipe

Save time by using refrigerated sugar-cookie dough to make these spooky witch cookies. Use green food coloring and cocoa to dye the dough green and brown then decorate with brown icing and mini chocolate candies.

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Black Cat Sandwich Cookies

Credit: Johnny Autry; Styling: Cindy Barr

Black Cat Sandwich Cookies Recipe

Letting these cookies cross your path will bring bad luck, so make sure to gobble them up before the tray passes you by.

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Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies

Credit: Romulo Yanes; Styling: Rachel Haas

Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies Recipe

Gingerbread cutters work if you're making skeletons. You can also use 2 1/2-inch cat or bat cutters. Look for meringue powder at craft stores or in the craft section of some big-box retailers.

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Witches' Hats

Credit: Ralph Anderson

Witches' Hats Recipe

Bring out your inner witch to make these two-cute cookies that kids are sure to love. Bonus? They're super easy.

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Cemetery Cookie Dessert

Credit: Oxmoor House

Cemetery Cookie Dessert Recipe

Little cookies stand up to resemble little tombstones on this easy-to-make dessert.

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Witches' Brooms

Credit: Oxmoor House

Witches' Brooms Recipe

Any witch would love to have a sweet broom like these yummy cookies!

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Cookie Bugs

Credit: Oxmoor House

Cookie Bugs Recipe

The anise in these little cookies goes well with the little licorice legs on each one!

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Melted Witches

Credit: Becky Luigart-Stayner

Melted Witches Recipe

Make a sweet treat that looks like the evil witch has melted right out of her hat.

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Frankenstein Cookie Bars

Credit: Thomas J. Story

Frankenstein Cookie Bars Recipe

These bars make a fun Halloween treat, and they're very flavorful: the green tea frosting cloaks a chewy-soft coconut-lime cookie. They're easy enough that the kids can help you make them.

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