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Halloween Cookies are an easy pudding cookie recipe with Halloween sprinkles and candy! These chocolate chip cookies are all dressed up for Halloween!
Table of Contents
How to Make Halloween Cookies Video
Now that my daughter is in high school, Halloween is so different. As a child, Jordan worshipped Halloween. She liked it second only to Christmas, and she usually had her costume picked out months in advance. Trick-or-treating was always an elaborate plan, complete with a sort-a-then and group count after the haul was brought in.
Jordan’s now 14, a freshman, and I think Halloween is just going to be meh from here on out. Or it will an exercise in patience on my part: waiting for her to come home before curfew or telling her to make that nurse costume more appropriate.
In all honestly, trick-or-treating was never my Halloween jam. I hated being out after dark with a cranky toddler – who took days to catch up on sleep – when I would have rather been at home watching TV and drinking wine.
No, my favorite part of Halloween are the fun treats and parties and activities. I may not want to trick-or-treat but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to make all the Halloween treats!
These Halloween Cookies are the perfect dessert for Halloween parties!
What makes the best Halloween Cookies?
So many things make these the best cookies for a spooky or fun Halloween party! It’s really easy to dress up any cookie recipe for this occasion with just three simple ingredients:
- Halloween M&Ms (or other similar candy)
- Halloween sprinkles
- Candy eyeballs
With just those three add-is, you can make any brownie, blondie or cookie recipe into a Halloween cookie!
My favorite celebration cookies are Pudding Cookies!
I have made so many different kinds of pudding cookies for every occasion: Christmas, Valentine’s Day, 4th of July, Easter, and now Halloween!
This cookie dough is easy to make, has tons of flavor from the added pudding mix, and they stay soft for days. These are so much better than your normal cookie recipe!
However, if you prefer you could also turn my Chocolate Chip Cookies or Sugar Cookies into Halloween Cookies!
What’s so special about pudding cookies?
I love how versatile they are. You can make any flavor cookie recipe just by adding a box of instant pudding! Whether you want vanilla, lemon, chocolate, cheesecake or any other flavor cookie, you just add that flavor pudding mix to your dough.
My original pudding cookie recipe uses a combination of unsalted butter and brown sugar. I love the flavor that brown sugar adds to cookies and it is an additional method to keep them soft.
As it is, pudding cookies are the softest chewy cookies you can make. They stay soft for days!
Whenever I make pudding cookies like these Halloween Cookies for a party, they’re the first to disappear!
Tips for making the best Halloween Pudding Cookies:
- Don’t skip chilling the dough! Not only does it help the flavor meld but it also helps keep them puffy after baking.
- Be sure to use INSTANT pudding mix and NOT sugar-free!
- Use any color M&Ms and sprinkles to make your favorite cookie. I added the eyes at the end to make them monster cookies!
- Get the look like I have: when they first come out of the oven add a few more M&Ms to the top of the cookies (press them on) before the cookies cool. Do the same with the sugar eyes, if you’re using, and the cookies will be extra fun.
Other fun Halloween Ideas:
Shop my favorites for this recipe:
- Halloween M&Ms
- Sugar eyes
- Cookie Scoop
- Instant Pudding Mix
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Halloween Cookies (Pudding Cookies)
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter softened
- ¾ cup (150g) brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 3.4 ounces box Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups (155g) all purpose flour
- ¼ cup Halloween sprinkles
- ¾ cup Halloween M&Ms any flavor
- Candy eyes optional
Instructions
- Note: This dough requires chilling.
- Cream butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. (You can also use a hand mixer.) Mix in egg and vanilla until smooth. Add pudding mix, baking soda, and salt. Mix until combined. Mix in flour, then stir in sprinkles and M&Ms.
- Scoop 2 tablespoon balls of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment or a silpat baking mat. There’s no need to space them out, you’re going to chill them. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpat baking mats. Place chilled cookie dough balls 2” apart on cookie sheet. Bake 9-11 minutes or until the edges just start to turn brown. If desired, press 1 or 2 candy eyes and 3-4 more M&Ms into the freshly baked cookies.
- Cool 5 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days or freeze for up to one month.
Recipe Video
Recipe Nutrition
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Last Updated on October 4, 2021
Can you chill the dough brlefore making the balls?
Yes but it will be hard to scoop.
These cookies are delicious! Anyone that try’s them, loves them! If a review is saying your cookies come out dry then you did something wrong.
Aloha,
Love these cookies and was fun to bake. Can I use chocolate pudding instead of the vanilla? Would I need to make exceptions? Thank you,
Patricia
You can use any flavor pudding as long as it’s not sugar-free!
Great cookies and a hit wherever I bring them! My son loves to help pick out sprinkles for every holiday and help decorate them! Thank you for sharing!
This recipe didn’t work for me at all- way too dry. Even though they didn’t cook right, they were delicious so I think with another egg, they would be great!
They shouldn’t have been dry at all – did you use instant pudding mix (not the actual pudding)? Did you make any substitutions? How did you measure your flour?
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