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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.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: It’s the perfect quick yet impressive Halloween dessert.
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 and adorably festive treat!
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.
If you make these for your Halloween party, you might want to make a double batch. They go fast! 😉
I’m obsessed with these cookies. I make them all the time for friends and they’re always a hit. So creative and can be switched up for Christmas or Easter.
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!).
Key Ingredient Notes
This recipe is very straight-forward, but there are a few special ingredients doing some heavy lifting. Here’s what you should know:
Black Cocoa 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 it, use Dutch-process cocoa powder instead. Be sure to also measure your cocoa correctly, as cocoa powder is a drying ingredient and too much will dry out your cookies.
Cornstarch – To keep the consistency of these cookies soft and tender.
Butter – Be sure it’s at a cool room temperature (around 67°F is perfect), and not too warm or greasy. Learn why butter temperature is important in baking here.
White chocolate chips & Halloween-themed M&Ms – For flavor, and to bring a super fun Halloween-y flair to our cookies! I used the “Ghoul Mix” M&Ms originally in this recipe, which appear to have been discontinued in recent years (boo!). Use the regular Halloween M&Ms instead.
Candy googly eyes – Optional, but so festive! Easy to find under the Wilton brand at most grocery stores seasonally, or online.
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 and M&Ms.
- Bake. At 350°F for about 12 minutes, until puffy but still soft, being careful not to overbake.
Carefully press candy eyeballs into the cookies while still hot. Allow to cool slightly on the baking tray 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
You can also add candy corn to the tops of the cookies after baking, along with the candy eyeballs.
Storage & Make ahead
Room Temperature: 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.
- How to Keep Cookies Soft: Add an apple wedge, piece of bread, or a tortilla (my favorite) 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.
Freeze Cookie Dough: 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.
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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
- 3/4 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.
- Bake for about 12 minutes, until puffy but still soft, being careful not to overbake. Carefully press the candy eyeballs into the cookies while still hot from the oven. Allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Photos by Joanie Simon.
I make these every year now and they are fantastic. They are always a big hit. I made them this year for a charity and they went very quickly.
I do not find them salty made as the recipe is written. It must be the different mix-ins that people are using.
Very tasty!! Has the flavor of a brownie in cookie form. I did a double batch, but cut the salt in half after reading reviews (so 1 tsp salt, but doubled all other ingredients). It was still a bit salty, but I will say that it could also depend on whatever mix-in ingredients you choose. I used the Halloween milk chocolate m&ms, Reese’s pieces, and white chocolate chips. The white chocolate is quite sweet, while the Reese’s pieces are a bit salty. So consider that and perhaps adjust your salt accordingly. But regardless, this is an excellent recipe and the cookies have a wonderful texture. They also baked into a nice round shape, which isn’t easy to do with lots of mix ins.
I want to make this for a kids’ party; can I make them mini-size? Like 1/2 tablespoon each? by how much should I decrease the baking time? Thanks!
Sure! For a smaller-sized cookie, I’d begin checking them around the 8-minute mark for doneness. Enjoy! 🙂
Thank you!!
I made these last year & were DELICIOUS! I can’t wait to make again next week. Question – is the amount of cocoa powder before or after it’s been sifted?
Thanks so much, Gina! Glad you enjoyed them 🙂 As a general rule, when you see “sifted” in a recipe, it indicates when to sift. If “sifted” is written after the ingredient, it means you sift after measuring. For example, if you see “1/2 cup (43 grams) black cocoa powder, sifted,” measure the cocoa powder first, then sift. But if you see “sifted” before the ingredient, like in “1/2 cup (43 grams) sifted black cocoa powder,” sift while measuring. I hope that helps!
Such a great question & answer. I’ve never considered “when” to sift before. I always sift after measuring.
Happy to help! It’s pretty rare that an ingredient is sifted beforehand (especially in our recipes), but it’s worth knowing the difference just in case! 🙂
These are fun but too salty. Definitely recommend reducing the salt.
I’ve made this before with my nephews and they loved it. My question is, after scooping and dotting them with candy and eyes, can I freeze the dough balls and then bake them the next morning?
Hi Esther! I don’t recommend freezing the dough balls with the candy eyes, as the colors might bleed (though that effect could be pretty monster-like, so feel free to give it a try!). You could freeze the dough and add the candy/eyes just before baking, or refrigerate the dotted dough overnight in an airtight container and bake straight from the fridge. Just add an extra minute or two to the bake time. I hope that helps!
What size cookie dough scoop do you use?
Hi Jane! We use a large 3-tablespoon sized cookie scoop for these cookies. Let us know what you think once you have given these cookies a try 🙂
The cookies look spectacular – nice and puffy and loaded with chocolate and M&Ms! They are perfect for Halloween. I followed the recipe exactly, but I must have scooped them smaller because I ended up with more cookies than the recipe said, so I reduced the baking time a bit. I found the cookies tasted a bit salty (I used fine sea salt, as the recipe indicated). Next time, I’ll reduce the amount of salt to about 1/2 a teaspoon, but I will definitely try them again!
I’m obsessed with these cookies. I make them all the time for friends and they’re always a hit. So creative and can be switched up for Christmas or Easter.
can you use black gel dye instead of the cocoa
No, gel and cocoa powder work very differently than each other. Cocoa powder adds color like gel does, but it also affects the flavor, texture, and rise of the cookies. Removing the cocoa powder entirely will result in a completely different, less desirable outcome.
These cookies were my first monthly baking challenge I did, and I was glad I decided to try! Not only do they look super festive and fun, but they’re delicious too. Bonus points for not turning your teeth black either.
I’ve made these for Halloween the past two years, and the kids love them. But I wanted to use up some of the chocolate, so I made them for Christmas, swapping out the white chocolate and M&Ms for crushed peppermint and mini chocolate chips. I also dipped them into the crushed mint, so there would be some on top. They were addictive!! The cookies spread more than the Halloween version, but they were chewy and rich and so delicious! I made the several times over the holidays! (The ones in the picture were for a January bakesale, so I used blue and white crushed candy canes)