Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Mild chocolate flavor to let those mix-ins really shine.
Texture: The cookie is ultra soft and chewy with blissful crunches from the Halloween M&Ms and googly candy eyes.
Ease: SO easy to make.
Pros: The cutest (yet easiest!) Halloween cookie recipe.
Cons: None.
Would I make this again? Yes, these are the perfect Halloween dessert.
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Festive and easy, these Halloween Cookies are an absolute must-make for your friends and family for a spooky movie night at home or for the Halloween block party!
No tricks here, just a delicious treat! These cookies are filled with orange, purple, white, and green M&Ms (the seasonal “Ghoul Mix” M&M bags) for the most adorable Halloween cookies. We even added edible googly eyes to some of the cookies to create perfect monster cookies! How cute are they?!
They’re so easy to make, too. No crazy decorating with royal icing required! Plus, these are so fun to get the kids involved with baking up a spooky treat together.
What Makes Cookies Chewy, Crisp, or Cakey?
My free guide reveals the ingredients and tweaks that matter.
If you make these for your Halloween party, you might want to make a double batch. They go fast! 😉
These are one of my favorite Halloween treats to make each year, and I hope you love this recipe as much as I do (and the guests who have enjoyed them off my dessert table too!).
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Halloween Cookies
Ingredients for Easy Halloween Cookies:
- All-purpose flour – Be sure to measure your flour correctly! If you add too much flour, you may end up with tough cookies that don’t spread, are cakey, dry, or taste bland.
- Black Cocoa powder or Dutch-process cocoa powder – Black cocoa can be ordered online and will provide that festive deep dark color. It also makes the cookies taste like Oreos! If you can’t find Black cocoa, feel free to use Dutch-process cocoa powder instead. Learn more about Dutch-process cocoa here. Be sure to also measure your cocoa correctly, as cocoa powder is a drying ingredient and too much will dry out your cookies.
- Baking soda & baking powder – Check out my Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder article to learn about the surprising differences between these two leaveners!
- Cornstarch – To keep the consistency of these cookies soft and tender.
- Salt – Enhances the flavor.
- Granulated sugar and light brown sugar – For sweetness, moisture, and flavor. Do not reduce the sugar – learn why here.
- Butter – Always use unsalted butter in baking, at a cool room temperature (around 67°F is perfect). Learn why butter temperature is important in baking here.
- 1 egg – At room temperature.
- Vanilla extract – For flavor.
- White chocolate chips & Halloween-themed M&Ms – For flavor, and to bring a super fun Halloween-y flair to our cookies!
- Candy googly eyes – For so much additional fun!!
What Type of Cocoa Powder to use for Double Chocolate Halloween Cookies?
I recommend using Black Cocoa for the best visual effect and for a tasty flavor (think Oreos – not super rich in chocolaty flavor, but a distinct flavor nonetheless). It can be difficult to source in stores but can be purchased easily online here. Alternatively, you can also use Dutch-process cocoa – just note that this will make your cookies lighter and more brown in color. My favorite brands of Dutch-process cocoa powder are E. Guittard, Penzeys, Bensdorp, or Valrhona. Regardless of cocoa type, be sure to sift it to avoid clumps of cocoa in your cookies!
How to Make Double Chocolate Halloween Cookies:
- Cream the butter and sugars. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the vanilla and egg. Scrape the bowl down before adding in the vanilla extract and the room temperature egg, beating well to combine.
- Combine the dry ingredients. Sift together the flour, cocoa, cornstarch, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Gradually add in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until a slightly sticky dough forms.
- Add the chocolate. Fold in the white chocolate chips and M&Ms with a rubber spatula.
- Portion out the cookies and decorate. Using a large spring-loaded scoop, drop 3-tablespoon sized balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. Dot the balls of cookie dough with extra chips, M&Ms, and candy eyeballs.
- Bake. At 350°F for about 12 minutes, until puffy but still soft, being careful not to overbake.
Allow to cool slightly on the baking tray. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Can I Change up the Mix-Ins?
Yes! You can absolutely switch out the white chocolate chips and Halloween-themed M&Ms for just about whatever you like! Just be sure to keep the total weight (or volume) the same as written in the recipe as well as using similarly sized mix-ins so the cookie dough balls stay together. Here are some Halloween cookie mix-in ideas:
- Dark chocolate chips
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Reese’s Pieces
- Well-chopped candy bars
Can I Make These into Halloween Cookie Bars?
Yes! These work beautifully as cookie bars. Here’s how:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a light-colored metal 8×8-inch baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil and use metal binder clips to secure in place. Make the recipe as instructed, then place the cookie dough in the prepared pan. Decorate the top with additional M&Ms, white chocolate chips, and candy eyeballs as desired. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the edges appear set but the center still jiggles slightly. Allow to cool before removing from the pan and slicing into 16 bars.
How to Store Double Chocolate Halloween Cookies
These are best enjoyed when fresh, but they will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Be sure they are completely cooled before storing. See right below for my top cookie storage tips!
How to Keep Cookies Soft
To keep your baked Halloween Cookies soft, you can add an apple wedge, piece of bread, or a tortilla on the top and bottom of the cookies to the container a day or two after baking them, or whenever you find the texture beginning to harden. The moisture from this will migrate to your cookies, making them soft and chewy again. A tortilla is a favorite of mine because it takes up much less room than a slice of bread and doesn’t transfer any flavors or aromas like an apple wedge can.
Alternatively, you can freeze the cookie dough so you can just bake off what you need, then store the rest in the freezer until you next crave fresh chocolaty cookies! More on this below.
Can you Freeze Double Chocolate Halloween Cookies?
I love the taste of cookies straight from the oven best (who doesn’t!?). I always keep pre-scooped balls of various types of cookie dough in a resealable bag in my freezer, so I can bake cookies off and have them warm from the oven in a matter of minutes whenever I want! Find all my tips for freezing cookie dough, and baking from frozen here.
Double Chocolate Halloween Cookies
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Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 cup (127 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (43 grams)
black cocoa powder (or Dutch-process), sifted - 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup (85 grams) white chocolate chips, plus more for garnish
- 1 cup (218 grams) Halloween M&MS, plus more for garnish
Edible candy eyeballs , for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape the bowl down before adding in the vanilla extract and egg, beating well to combine.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, cornstarch, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Gradually add in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until a slightly sticky dough forms. Fold in the white chocolate chips and M&Ms with a rubber spatula.
- Using a large spring-loaded cookie scoop, drop 3-tablespoon sized balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. Dot the balls of cookie dough with extra chips, M&Ms, and candy eyeballs. Bake for about 12 minutes, until puffy but still soft, being careful not to overbake. Allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe Notes
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a light-colored metal 8×8-inch baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil and use metal binder clips to secure in place. Make the recipe as instructed, then place the cookie dough in the prepared pan. Decorate the top with additional M&Ms, white chocolate chips, and candy eyeballs as desired. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the edges appear set but the center still jiggles slightly. Allow to cool before removing from the pan and slicing into 16 bars.
The Ultimate Cookie Handbook
Learn the sweet SCIENCE of cookie baking in a fun, visual way to customize your own recipes frustration-free. Plus, my best 50+ homemade cookies!
Photos by Joanie Simon.
So cute and oh so good!! My littles loved putting the candy eyes in these to make them monster cookies!
These are delightful Halloween festive cookies! Easy to make and come together quickly!
Can you chill the dough for 24-48 hours?
Hi Ashi! Yes, I’ve personally baked them after 24-48 hours in the fridge (if well-wrapped in plastic wrap or stored inside an airtight container, to prevent the dough from drying out) and this works perfectly 🙂 Let us know what you think of these cookies once you have given them a try!
Due to time crunch, we made these in bar form but they were delicious! Great texture, moist, and first dessert gone at the party! Made them again a couple days later and they were still soft after 3 days.
SO GOOD! I saw these cookies last year but never got around to making them and I missed out! The best way I can describe them is they taste like the crust of a good brownie and I am obsessed! I couldn’t find the eye candies but the M&M’s inside were such a sweet surprise in contrast with the black cocoa. These will be a staple every year now!
Easy to make, yummy to eat!
Super chocolatey. Yummy right out of the oven, so looking forward to what they’ll be like tomorrow once the flavors have “bloomed”. I did lower salt to 3/4 tsp based on previous comment by another reviewer.
My son proclaimed them as “Gucci”, which is always an indicator that he really likes something. Thanks for the recipe!
Cookie base is awesome ! Gets very sweet with all the white chocolate. I’d prob opt for more m&ms than white chocolate next time.
These are absolutely delicious! They have a brownie taste with just the right amount of white chocolate chips and M&M’s to satisfy any craving. My only suggestion is make a double batch, you won’t be sorry!
Super fun and easy to make, and perfect for Halloween!
I was so excited to make this recipe! I’m not sure what I did wrong. The cookies spread very thin. I checked the troubleshooting chapter of Tessa’s Ultimate Cookie Handbook, and I seem to have done everything it told me to do: weigh the dry ingredients, use cool pans, etc. I guess I will need to try this recipe again sometime because the Halloween colors and eyeballs are very fun. Any ideas about what I should do differently?
One big positive: I had never heard of black cocoa powder before this. I’m looking forward to using it in other baking projects.
Hi Penny! I’m sorry to hear that you’re experiencing issues with these cookies! Without having baked alongside you, it’s hard to pinpoint what is going wrong – and it sounds like you’re doing everything correctly! I’ll list a few things here that you didn’t mention, just in case something else is the problem:
– How warm was your butter? This has a huge impact on a cookie’s outcome. Have a look at this article, where Tessa discusses creaming butter/sugar (another thing to look at!) and butter’s temperature and its impact on baked goods.
– How old are your leavening agents? If your baking soda/powder are not fresh, they won’t do their jobs – which could be one reason for your cookies overspreading. Tessa talks about the science behind leavening agents, and how to test for leavener freshness, in this article here!
– Although it’s not required for this recipe, it never hurts to chill your dough for a bit before baking – especially if where you live is quite warm.
I hope something here helped, Penny, and I hope you’re able to nail these cookies!! Happy baking 🙂
So quick to put together and everyone in my bunco group loved them!