8 great Halloween recipes

Halloween isn’t all about candy. There are lots of fun, festive recipes to make before or on Halloween to help celebrate this spooky holiday. There are also a couple of ideas for breakfast and dinner before trick-or-treating. Happy cooking!

Fancy caramel apples

Candy apples are the quintessential fall treat, and these take it up a notch with chocolate and decorations. Just melt caramel squares and white chocolate chips and get dipping. Decorate by using black frosting for a ghost face, or cover in orange and black sprinkles, Reese’s Pieces or candy corn. Get creative!

• 5 fresh apples (Jonagold or Granny Smith work well)
• Packaged caramel squares (they usually include the sticks for the apples)
• Package vanilla CandiQuick or white chocolate chips
• Assorted candies, sugars or other decorations

Lay wax paper over baking sheet and grease well. Wash and thoroughly dry the apples. Remove stems and insert sticks.

Melt the caramel according to package directions. Carefully swirl the apples into melted caramel and set onto greased wax paper. Once cooled a bit, reshape caramel that may have pooled at the bottom of the apple – or remove it with a sharp knife. Put in refrigerator to finish cooling, about 1 hour.

Melt white chocolate according to package directions. Once caramel has completely set, carefully swirl apples into chocolate. Let chocolate dry a little before adding sprinkles and candies; let dry completely before decorating with frosting.

Spiced sandwich cookies

These can be called spiced sandwich cookies, or spiced whoopie pies. Either way, these rich and delicious cookies have a delicious cinnamon and nutmeg flavor with a cream cheese frosting in the middle. A little food coloring and Halloween sprinkles make these a festive treat.

• 1 box spice cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 1 lb. powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix cake mix, 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter and two eggs in electric mixer until combined.

Roll dough into balls and place onto baking sheet about two inches apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Meanwhile, cream 1/2 cup of butter, cream cheese and vanilla in electric mixer. Gradually add powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add food coloring if desired (To get orange, the box that my food coloring came in said to use 4 yellow drops to 3 red drops. I used about 40 yellow and 30 red drops), and mix until well blended.

When cookies have cooled, spread filling over one, then top with a similar-sized cookie. Add sprinkles or other candy, if desired.

Ghostly milkshakes

Halloween is also so much fun and there are so many ways to celebrate – spooky or cutesy, pumpkin or candy, trick or treat. Here’s a recipe the kids will love, and it’s incredibly simple. Just melt some chocolate chips, paint some spooky eyes and mouths on a glass or plastic cup, and add your blended milkshake. Pipe on some homemade whipped cream, or just use the stuff in a can.

Adapted from marthastewart.com

• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup milk
• 2 pints vanilla ice cream
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir. If needed, melt in 30-second increments until fully melted. Do not overheat! The chocolate will seize and become a big, dry lump.

Using a paintbrush or back of a small spoon, create ghostly faces on the inside of a glass or plastic cup. Let harden while you make the milkshake.

Add ice cream and milk to blender. Blend until well blended.

Pour into glasses.

Add whipping cream to bowl of mixer. Mix until soft peaks form. Add powdered sugar and continue mixing until stiff peaks form. Add whipped cream to pastry bag with round tip and pipe on top of milkshake. (You can also skip this part and just use canned whipped cream.)

Pumpkin cupcakes with marshmallow cream cheese frosting

Pumpkin lovers will devour these cupcakes. The classic cream cheese frosting contains a sweet surprise: marshmallow fluff!

From Martha Stewart Living, Halloween 2004 special issue

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

White chicken chili

Need a hearty, warm meal before you take the kids out trick-or-treating? Here’s a chili full of chicken, cheese and a creamy sauce. The kids will love it.

Adapted from epicurious.com

• 2 cans white beans
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
• two 4-ounce cans diced mild green chilies
• 5 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 2 pounds), cooked and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 1/2 cups grated Monterey Jack (about 6 ounces)
• 1/2 cup sour cream

In a skillet cook onion in 2 tablespoons butter over moderate heat until softened.

In a 6- to 8-quart heavy kettle melt remaining 6 tablespoons butter over moderately low heat and whisk in flour. Cook roux, whisking constantly, 3 minutes. Stir in onion and gradually add broth and half-and-half, whisking constantly. Bring mixture to a boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes, or until thickened. Stir in Tabasco, chili powder, cumin, salt, and white pepper. Add beans, chilies, chicken, and Monterey Jack and cook mixture over moderately low heat, stirring, 20 minutes. Stir sour cream into chili.

Pumpkin spice cookies

A box of cake mix and some pumpkin puree are the main ingredients in these delicious cookies. After baking, they're slathered with cinnamon-spiked buttercream.

Adapted from a recipe by Betty Crocker

• 1 box spice cake mix
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• ½ stick of butter, softened

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare a cookie sheet with a sheet of parchment paper, or with grease and flour.

Dump the cake mix, pumpkin puree, egg and soft butter into a bowl and mix it all just until combined. (I used my stand mixer, but a hand mixer, or an old-fashioned spoon, works just as well.)

Drop spoonfuls of dough about two inches apart on the cookie sheet … OR … squeeze blobs of dough out of a pastry bag onto the cookie sheet. Tip: Squeezing blobs is less messy and more fun. But my blobs in the photo are too … blobby. Hold the tip of the pastry bag closer to the cookie sheet when you squeeze it, and your cookies will come out a little flatter and prettier. (All the finished cookies in my photos are from a second batch of less-blobby cookies.)

Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes.

Pumpkin waffles

If you like pumpkin, you must try these waffles. Cinnamon and ginger make them fragrant, whipped egg whites make them fluffy, and pumpkin makes them delicious.

Adapted from the Pumpkin Waffles blog

• ¼ cup light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1¾ teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• ¼ teaspoon cloves
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
• 4 tablespoons (half a stick) unsalted butter, melted and warm

Lightly coat the waffle iron with vegetable oil (don’t use cooking spray!) and set it to the desired temperature.

Whisk together brown sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl. Add the remaining dry ingredients, and whisk to blend.

Separate the eggs, putting the yolks in a medium-sized bowl and whites in a smaller bowl.

Add the pumpkin and milk to the egg yolks. Whisk to blend and set aside.

Whip egg whites with a hand mixer on high until stiff peaks form — about 1½ to 2 minutes. Set aside.

Pour melted butter into the yolk/milk/pumpkin mixture. As you pour, whisk to combine.

Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined.

Fold in the whipped egg whites until no white bits are obvious.

Pour the batter into your waffle iron. Cooking time will vary depending on the waffle iron; it took about four minutes for my waffles to cook, while the inventor of “ultimate pumpkin waffles” says theirs took 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

Chocolate cupcakes with pumpkin spice frosting

Rich cream-cheese frosting flavored with pumpkin and spice gives these chocolate cupcakes a fall feel.

Adapted from tastykitchen.com

Muffin ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (1 Cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups sugar
• 5 whole eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk

Pumpkin frosting ingredients:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 3-½ cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoons ginger
• ½ teaspoons nutmeg
• ½ cups pumpkin puree
• Autumn mix candies for decoration

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease muffin pans or line with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter, then add the sugar and beat until fluffy.

On medium speed, add one egg at a time to the butter sugar mixture. Don’t over-beat, just mix enough to blend well.

Add vanilla and mix.

Alternate adding flour/cocoa mixture and buttermilk until combined. Mix well on medium speed for about 30 seconds until smooth.

Fill muffin tins one-third of the way full.

Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let muffins cool in the pan for about 2 minutes and carefully remove to cool on a rack.

Frosting: In a bowl, beat butter and cream cheese together until smooth.

Add all other frosting ingredients and mix together on medium speed. Add more powdered sugar or cream cheese for a thicker consistency if desired. The frosting can also be refrigerated 10 to 15 minutes if it’s too soft.

Spread or pipe frosting on top of cooled cupcakes. Top with pumpkin candies or candy corn, if desired.

This story was originally published October 26, 2016 at 8:10 AM with the headline "8 great Halloween recipes."