44 Scary-Good Halloween Treats

The devil is in the decorative details when it comes to these decadent Halloween brownies: (more) chocolate, marshmallows, and M&M’s come together as silly-spooky monster faces. Just try to resist!

Recipe: Monster Brownies

Give your Halloween party some personality with these carved edible “bowls.” Make them as goofy or as scary as you like, depending on your mood! Not only do these jack o’lantern snacks add a festive touch, they will make sure kids and adults alike will continue to snack on vegetables in between bites of Halloween candy. This healthy Halloween snack is a must.

Recipe: Bell Pepper Jack-o-Lanterns with Vegetables and Dip

These “mummies” make a crowd-pleasing, savory addition to your Halloween party spread.

Recipe: Stuffed Pepper Mummies

Spun-sugar recipes typically involve flinging hot liquid sugar across a setup of dowels and newspaper. It’s messy and, frankly, a little bit frightening. Here’s a much easier method that requires nothing more than a few forks and a small upturned bowl, and you can do it on your kitchen counter. The results–golden, airy sugar webs–make excellent Halloween cupcake toppers.

Recipe: Spun-Sugar Cobwebs

Turns out that spinach wrapped in pie dough passes the picky-eater test! For these Halloween riffs on the classic calzone, use 4- by 5-in. pumpkin-shaped cookie cutters (find at cooking or craft stores and online). Or cut out a pumpkin-shaped template from paper, set it on the dough, and cut around it with a thin, sharp knife.

Recipe: Spinach Jack-o’-Lantern Hand Pies

Matcha green tea frosting atop chewy coconut-like cookie bars and some clever detailing make these treats a Halloween highlight.

Recipe: Frankenstein Cookie Bars

At 20th Century Café in San Francisco, chef-owner Michelle Polzine serves hot butterscotch in a teacup with a dollop of whipped cream. It’s like hot chocolate but with a caramelly flavor profile. Take a Thermos-ful along when trick-or-treating, and for the adults, go ahead and top with a splash or two of rum.

Recipe: Hot Butterscotch

No judgement if you have a serious #PSL habit, but what’s better than a pumpkin spice latte? These pumpkin spice “ghosts” that’ll be sure to quickly disappear at a Halloween party.

Recipe: Pumpkin Madeleines

These sophisticated Halloween party treats are a modern nod to the holiday tradition of bobbing for apples. You get all the satisfaction of a caramel apple in one bite and without a messy chin.

Recipe: Mini Caramel Apples

Watch how to concoct the ultimate Halloween party libation in our spooky sangria video.

More: How to make spooky sangria

We made good old chicken pot pie Halloween party-worthy by loading up the filling with fresh vegetables and herbs, and decorating the top with bones and skulls cut from puff pastry.

Recipe: Boneyard Chicken Pot Pie

Make these festive Halloween sandwiches alongside a pot of tomato soup for an easy dinner if you’re having guests over to trick-or-treat.

Recipe: Pumpkin-Shaped Crispy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Watch how to make this easy spooky Halloween treat for your October 31 festivities.

Recipe: Candy Emoji Ghosts

If you prefer your shakes thicker, just follow the make-ahead directions.

Recipe: Pumpkin Bourbon Shakes

Making a spooky snack for your Halloween table is as easy as cutting tortillas with a bat-shaped cookie cutter. We seasoned one panful with cinnamon and sugar and the other with chile salt, but you can go for all sweet or all savory if you prefer. These Halloween snacks can be served as appetizers alongside salsa for a savory bite or Greek yogurt swirled with honey for something sweet that goes beyond candy.

Recipe: Sweet & Savory Tortilla Bats

Toasting the cumin brings out its flavor, and a bit of Madras curry powder makes this a savory pie that’s as appealing to grown-ups as it is to kids.

Recipe: Chicken Curry Moon Pies

“Punch” is a good description of this one—a couple of glasses pack a wallop. Add extra cranberry juice if you want it weaker.

Recipe: Autumn Punch

Basically an open-face pie, this is a great dessert for pie-phobes to make because the crust is so easy to handle.

Recipe: Apple Pumpkin Galette

The warm spices of holiday pies are mixed with seeds and a touch of salt for a sweet and savory snack to eat by the handful. It can be shared with any trick-or-treaters on the Halloween trail, since it won’t set off peanut allergies.

Recipe: Pie-Spiced Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds

Empanadas get their name from the Spanish word empanar, “to bake in pastry.” For these handheld pies, we’ve used pie dough for a more delicate, buttery crust.

Recipe: Pumpkin Curry Empanadas

These electric magenta cupcakes get their color not from the usual food coloring but from puréed roasted beets, which also add a subtle flavor. Don’t use canned or packaged steamed beets—the cupcakes’ color will be drab.

Recipe: Red Velvet Cupcakes with Orange Buttercream

This is an adaptable little recipe. We love the warm, spicy flavor of brown mustard, but feel free to use your family’s favorite mustard. You can also customize the filling by using any kind of thinly sliced cheese and/or meat that you or your kids prefer.

Recipe: Halloween Ham and Cheese Hand Pies

Whirl 1 large heirloom tomato (8 oz., chopped) in a blender until smooth. Strain into a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice. Add 1/2 cup potato vodka such as Blue Ice, 1 tsp. grated fresh horseradish, and juice from 1 lemon and shake to blend. Strain into 2 highball glasses. To garnish each glass, thread 3 pitted green olives onto a long Thai chile and set over glass.

This grown-up version of our Chocolate-Pistachio Marshmallows glows with Halloween color.

Recipe: Chocolate-Pistachio Apricots

These treats make the perfect addition to a fall party spread. The canned pumpkin in the batter keeps these cupcakes moist, reducing the amount of oil you need to use.

Recipe: Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

This irresistible pumpkin recipe features layers of pumpkin and vanilla ice cream inside a graham cracker crust, with gooey caramel on top.

Recipe: Pumpkin Caramel Ice Cream Pie

The only quibble we have with popcorn balls is that they’re usually too big and unwieldy to bite into. These miniature clusters, held together with caramelized honey, are just the right size.

Recipe: Bite-Size Honey Popcorn Balls

Not only is this chili easy to make ahead, it actually improves with time. If you like your chili very spicy, add an extra teaspoon of chipotle powder.

Recipe: Devilish Chorizo Chili with Hominy

These are great for cocktail parties since you can eat them one-handed.

Recipe: Spiced Lamb Chops with Rosemary Crumbs

Not quite enough pumpkin for you? Serve it in mini pumpkin bowls.

Recipe: Pumpkin Soup with Pumpkin Seed-Mint Pesto

Recipe: Mini Pumpkin Bowls

These cookies are designed as accessories for our Dark Chocolate Graveyard Pots de Crème, but they also make a nice Halloween snack on their own. Follow our simple design or cut the gravestones into more elaborate shapes topped with crosses or lunettes.

Recipe: Tombstone Cookies

These ghosts are but one highlight in a spooky Halloween party menu including Green Salad With Dracula’s Teeth, Broomstick Breadsticks, and Risotto in Decapitated Pumpkins.

Recipes: Halloween party menu

This warmly spiced brittle also makes a crunchy garnish for a holiday pumpkin pie.

Recipe: Cinnamon Pumpkin Seed Brittle

Throughout the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, Sunset paired doughnuts with Halloween. Everything from after-school doughnut parties to “frying tables” at evening events and the gentle reminder, “Don’t forget the doughnuts,” for a Halloween party menu appeared in our pages.

Recipe: Rich Refrigerator Donuts

If deviling your eggs isn’t enough this Halloween, spider them too. Joanie Pimentel in Sunset’s information technology department came up with this styling idea for our Bacon Deviled Eggs recipe. She cuts pitted black olives in half lengthwise and nestles one half on top of an egg for the body, and then cuts the other half crosswise into thin slices to form the creepy legs.

Recipe: Spooky Spider Eggs

Chocolate-covered peanuts meet chocolate-coated raisins in this easy and addictive candy.

Recipe: Peanut-Raisin Bark

Dark chocolate and bitter orange offset the sweetness of candy corn in these fun and fancy truffles.

Recipe: Chocolate Candy Corn Truffles

These ghastly little nibbles are rich with cheesy flavor, and a real snap to make.

Recipe:  Cheddar Witch’s Fingers

Set out a platter of owl cookies with candy-corn beaks. Trace our pattern on heavy paper or lightweight cardboard, or use cookie cutters in any shape.

Recipe: Owl Cookies

Marshmallow cream is the surprise inside these dark chocolate cupcakes topped with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.

Recipe: Devil’s Food Cupcakes with Marshmallow Filling

It’s hard to stop at just one when you try these silky brown-sugar candies.

Recipe: Butterscotch Caramels

The flaky texture of these clusters reminds us of Butterfinger candy bars.

Recipe: Coconut Haystacks

A crisp, slightly tart apple dipped in chewy caramel is a classic sweet. A caramel apple double-dipped in white chocolate and crunchy toffee is the stuff of dreams.

Get 5 delicious variations

Rich spice flavors shine in this tender, cakelike bread. You can store this bread airtight at room temperature up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months.

Recipe: Farmer John’s Favorite Pumpkin Bread