Easy Halloween Party Food and Fun

We love Halloween at our house. I've always loved everything about the fall season (like the menu and the wardrobe). We love having Halloween parties and get-togethers, where we all bring fun "spooky" snacks to share. Now we have kids, they have become a bit more kid-friendly. I wanted to put a post in one place on here so that when you're planning a party you won't have to search far! So I sort of condensed all of my favorite ideas I have found all over the place throughout the years (I wish I had them documented) in one spot. If there's one thing I've learned it's that you can turn any food into a Halloween food with the addition of a) eyes or b) plastic spiders. Seriously. But here are some of my favorite things that make appearances at our house around this holiday. The great thing is that a lot of them are healthy (or semi-healthy) options, which is a nice thing compared to the loads of candy you usually see. Enjoy!

                                Mummies on a Stick

 Mummies on a Stick. Well, this picture they are "stick-less." I put a post last week with this recipe. It's so fun! Here is the recipe if you missed it. Click here.  You can even cut the hot dogs in half to make them bite-sized.


                                Monster Jaws

 Quarter apples and take a wedge out of the center of each quarter. Dunk them in water with a little lemon juice to prevent browning. Use slivered almonds for teeth (I toasted mine for color and taste!) Eyes are optional. I stuck pretzel rods in and attached candy eyes with peanut butter.
         

                                Bones 'n Blood

Use breadstick dough (store bought or homemade) and cut into strips. Use scissors to snip the ends into 2 pieces and roll them down to make the bone shape. Dip in "bloody" marinara! For extra flavor sprinkle with garlic and Parmesan or a different seasoning you love.


                                Candy Corn Pizza

Easy peasy! Just make a plain cheese pizza (you can even just buy store pizza dough if you aren't wanting to do homemade) just make a ring of cheddar cheese around the outside edge and mozzerella in the center. Cut into wedges to make the candy corns.


                               Cheesy Fingers

Super kid friendly- who doesn't love string cheese?? Because of my daughter's food allergies to all dairy, unfortunately we won't be making them anytime soon. They are still way cute, an I would had we not been given that obstacle!   I cut them in half to make them kid-sized. Use the flat side of a knife to make the knuckle marks and attach slivered almonds with a dab of cream cheese for the nails. I also used a knife to shave off just a bit of the cheese at an angle before attaching the almond.


                                Chocolate Cherry Mice

You'll need maraschino cherries for this one. Make sure you buy ones with stems. Drain them and dry them well with paper towels. Dip in almond bark, or chocolate bark. When they are semi dry, attach a chocolate chip for a nose, slivered almonds for ears, and little candies or sprinkles for eyes. These are always a big hit!


                             Dirt n' Worms

Another classic. Use chocolate pudding for your mud and put some crushed Oreo's on top for dirt. Hide those gummy worms in there for eeek factor! 


                                Pumpkin Sammies 

This is a great staple for a Halloween party spread because it pleases both kids and adults and is something with substance! Use Halloween cookie cutters to cut your bread. I like to fill some with peanut butter or cream cheese and orange-colored jam (like peach or apricot) for the kiddos, and something more sophisticated like Chicken Salad for the grown ups! 


                                   Nutty Ghosts

Nutter Butters are naturally ghost shaped, which make them perfect for dipping! Give them a bath in some almond bark and put on a couple of mini chocolate chips for eyes. And might I add that white chocolate covered Nutter Butters taste really good! Super easy, too!


                                  Witches Wands

Dipped Pretzel Rods (at the Dollar Store they have big, thick ones, you can dip in caramel then chocolate!) are instantly transformed into "Witches Wands" with a little Halloween pizazz! After dipping them, just roll teh min cute sprinkles, nuts, or anything "halloweenie" you can find. So fun! Put them in containers with candy corns to hold them up. The little mini buckets pictured are from the Target dollar section. SO cute!


                                 Spidey Cookies

Red hots and licorice turn Oreo's into creepy (but kinda cute) spiders. Red Shoestring licorice is hard to find these days, but Twizzlers makes "Pull-Apart" candy that works perfectly!


                                  Spider Web Dip

This trick works for pretty much any dip that you could pipe sour cream on top of! I always do a basic 7-Layer taco dip. Put some sour cream in a plastic baggie with the end snipped off and use it to draw a web pattern. Throw on a fake spider or two and your favorite party dip is instantly creepy!


                                    Slimy Worms on a Bun

I personally thought these looked too gross to eat--I didn't even want to touch it! Just slice hotdogs and drop them into boiling water for just a minute or two and they'll curl a bit. Dunk them in some BBQ sauce and you have slimy worms :)


                                 Witch Hats

One of the easiest Halloween tricks (and treats!). Place a Hershey's Kiss on top of a Keebler Fudge Strip Cookie and you have a little hat. Use the little tubes of frosting you can buy in the grocery store baking isle. Pipe a ring around the outside of the bottom of the kiss and press onto the cookie. It will squeeze out and make the ring around the kiss. Then pipe on the bow.


                                 Witch Brooms

A witch with a cute hat needs a broom to match! Use cookie dough to form a broom shape around the end of a large pretzel rod. Use a tooth pick to make indentations in the cookies if you want. If your cookies spread too much during baking just use a knive to trim the edges when they come out of the oven and are still warm. Then decorate as desired. I just use a packaged PB cookie mix to make it easy, but I add a bit of flour to make the cookies hold their shape better. You could also use homemade PB cookie dough or sugar cookie dough.


                             Halloween Popcorn Mix

Perfect for a party, or great in individual bags or container for favors!  IT's basically white chocolate covered popcorn with candy corn, peanuts, and peanut butter candies.This makes a ton, so it's great for a party. Plus, there's no cooking involved! Can't beat that. It's a great sweet and salty combo....If you've never bought almond bark before, you can find it in pretty much any normal grocery store in the baking aisle. It's by the chocolate chips and comes in a 1 lb brick. It saves a lot to take that route, rather than buy expensive dipping chocolate. But if that's you're thing...go for it! It melts very easily in the microwave or stove top. Just be sure to only melt in 20 second increments (then stir), because if you heat it too much, it ruins and clumps. Been there done that! Here's the recipe:


{Halloween Popcorn Mix} 

1 package Almond Bark (1 lb)

12 C popped popcorn (about 1/2 C kernals)

1 C candy corn

1 C dry roasted, salted peanuts

1/2 C Reeces Pieces 

Pop popcorn and place in a large bowl. Much larger than you think you need. The largest you have. It will make mixing easier! Pour peanuts, candy corn, and Reeses Pieces on top. Take a large knife and break up almond bark. Melt according to package directions. I just chop it up a little and microwave it in intervals until smooth and melted. Pour over popcorn mixture. Stir until everything is well coated and then spread out onto waxed paper, parchment, or foil. Let sit until completely dry and then break up into clumps. This makes a big batch so it's great for packing up into cute bags and sharing!






                                         Halloween Cookie Pops

Here's a great sugar cookie recipe and a tutorial on both glace icing and cookie pops. Make some spooky shapes and let people pick up some yum on a stick! Click here for a tutorial on making the spider web designs.

Sugar Cookies
1 C real butter (highly recommend no substitutions for this recipe!)
1 C sugar
1 egg (make sure to use a large or extra large egg)
1 1/2 t almond extract (or other flavor of your choice, like vanilla)
3 C flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes. Add in egg and extract and mix to incorporate.
In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.
Chill the dough in the fridge for about an hour, or use this great tip to make things easier:
When your dough is made, instead of putting it in the fridge, immediately roll  between 2 sheets of waxed or parchment paper and then place on a flat surface in the fridge.  Chill for about 20-30 minutes and then start cutting it out.  This way it chills faster and the bonus is that you don't need to add extra flour to roll it out.  If you don't use this tip, proceed as follows:
When you're ready to roll out dough lightly sprinkle flour onto your work surface and roll out dough with a rolling pin.
Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes. The baking time really depends on how you like them. If you like them really and slightly chewy, about 8-9 minutes does it. If you like them slightly crisp and buttery, then go for 10-12. 

Glacé Icing  
1lb powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 C)
6T whole milk (low-fat actually works, but use whole if you can)
6T light Corn Syrup (6T is equal to 1/4 C plus another 2 T)
1 t extract (I use almond because I use almond in my sugar cookies)
With a whisk, combine sugar and milk until smooth (no lumps!) Then stir in corn syrup and extract.
You will use this same recipe for both glazing and piping. The way it is right now is the consistency you want for glazing. It's smooth and thin, like in the picture below. It easily runs off the whisk in a pretty thin drizzle.

To prepare the icing for piping, you just add more powdered sugar. Just eyeball it. You can't really mess it up because if it's too thick you just add more milk and if it's to thin, you add more powdered sugar. I add it in small amounts until it's a good consistency. For me, it's when it gets to a point where it's relatively hard to whisk it by hand. When I pick up the whisk, it still runs off, but in a very slow, thick stream. Take your glazing icing and separate it into bowls if you want to color it. In this case I just used black and white.  

Step 1: Top cookie with the base color. In this case I'm using a white base. I used the Glace Icing in the flooding consistency and added just a tad too runny. However you don't want it as thick as you would use for piping. It should easily run and Don't bother trying to outline them first to fill, just flood the cookie and either stop near the edges, or what's even easier is to do as I did and just let the icing drip right over the edge of the cookie. Let the cookie dry for just a few minutes. If you're doing multiple cookies, go ahead and glaze another 5-6 cookies and then your first one will be ready for step   

Step 2: Using black icing, again just a tad thicker than flooding consistency, but thinner than piping consistency, start from the center of the cookie and pipe a swirl until you get to the outside edge. If you don't have a piping bag, just use a heavy duty zip-lock bag with a small hole cut out of one corner. 

Step 3: Use a toothpick and starting from the center of your swirl, lightly drag it in a straight line to the edge.

Step 4: Continue around the cookie repeating that step. You can continue pulling only from the center, or so as I did and alternate pulling from the center out and then from the outside to the center. You'll get different designs, try it out and see which one you like.

 

Experiment with color combos. I love how the black turned out. If you're using black make sure to use gel or paste food color. Purple, green, and orange webs look cool too! Let those cookies dry for a full 24 hours if you're going to stack them, otherwise they can dry for only a few hours as long as you're very careful not to bump them and dent the icing. It will be smooth and dry on top, but soft underneath. (Which is in my opinion, the yummiest way to eat them!)

             

     
                                           Glow in the Dark Food

The secret to glowing food is tonic water (diet tonic water works too).  It contains quinine, and guess what happens when you expose quinine to black light? So if you mix up a drink (like crystal light lemonade like in this picture) and add a little tonic water...magical glowing beverages!  Pretty much anything you can make that includes water can glow with tonic water.

Like Jello for example (see pic). Now tonic water does have a nasty bitter taste to it.  I think it's a bit strange. Kids don't seem to care, they think it's so cool. Adding a bit to juice or punch isn't very noticeable.  And if you do jello, you can use part regular water (half and half, or even less tonic) to minimize the bitter taste. 
Think of other creative uses and gather stuff on your kitchen table.  Turn down the lights, flip on a black light, and watch your kids "ooooh" and "aaaahhh" as they sip glow in the dark juice and chomp down on some radioactive jello.