Tricky treats: Halloween baking recipes

Tired of candy corn, chocolate bars, and gummies? This Halloween, ditch the candy aisle and join us as we brew up four spooky treats that are sure to send a shiver down your spine! 

To set the mood, we started up our Crier-curated Halloween playlist and got to work!

Witch’s Brew – Recipe

Our first recipe of the evening was the Witch’s Brew, which we hoped would keep us bubbly and refreshed as we neared the witching hour. 

We mixed our lime soda and lime sherbet in a large bowl that began to look very cauldron-esque as the green drink began to foam and bubble as the soda’s carbonation attacked the cold sherbet. Initially, the simple mix of lime soda and lime sherbet was enjoyable.

But the drink didn’t stay appetizing for very long. 

As the evening wore on, our concoction grew even more ghastly as bits of the ice cream began to separate from the soda. If you’re looking for a spooky chemistry lesson in decantation, look no further than this recipe. However, if you’re looking for a refreshing fall treat, you might be better off looking elsewhere. 

Alexa (3/10): This sickeningly-sweet brew tasted fine at first, as long as I ignored the strange foamy texture of the sherbet. However, the longer it sat out and separated into soda and sherbet, the less appetizing it became. 

Jessica (4/10): The slight tang of the lime made my first few sips of this brew refreshing and enjoyable, but the longer my drink sat on the counter, the more disturbed I became. The frothy, almost grainy texture perturbed me to the point that I couldn’t stand to drink it anymore.

Dracula Dentures – Recipe

In the hopes of keeping our baking session from going batty, for our second recipe, we picked something simple: Dracula Dentures.  

All we needed to do was bake cookies from premade cookie dough and then decorate. Sounds easy enough. 

Oh how wrong we were.

We pulled out our pre-made cookie dough, formed balls (which were definitely at least double the size they were supposed to be), placed them on the baking sheet, and popped them in the oven. 

In the meantime, we dyed our icing red with a bit of food coloring and prepped our mini marshmallows.

After we extended the cooking time for a few minutes due to the size of the cookies, we wound up burning them.

While the massive cookies were still warm, we took a plastic cup and cut out a few regular-sized cookies. That way our dentures would fit Dracula instead of Bigfoot.  

How we managed to mess up pre-made cookie dough is beyond us. 

Once we had the cookies baked, we thought that the horror was behind us…

We were sorely mistaken. 

Once we spread the bright red frosting onto two cookies and stacked them, we were faced with the daunting task of sticking on the makeshift marshmallow-almond teeth. Our teeth refused to stick, and after repeated tries, the teeth were covered in “blood,” leaving our creation looking like a vampire post-massacre.  

Alexa (3/10): These cookies had so much potential. What could possibly be bad about two warm chocolate chip cookies with red dye-loaded frosting in the middle? However, it is hard to get past the unmistakable burnt taste and texture that they left in my mouth. 

Jessica (2/10): Burnt cookies, runny icing, and a random almond sliver hardly make for an appetizing dessert. I’m sure this recipe would be a lot better had we not over baked the cookies, but ultimately the thick layer of frosting and mini marshmallows provided minimal flavor beyond sickly sweet sugar.  

Apple Crisp Cookie Cups – Recipe 

We scooped the dough into the muffin tins, then squished them into a cup shape with a spoon.

While the cups baked in the oven, we prepared our apple filling.

Be careful as you chop your apples–you don’t want to end up like the Thing! 

After the apples were chopped and we seasoned them with cinnamon and sugar, we scooped hearty helpings into each of the cups.

Alexa (8/10): I am not usually a fan of chopped and cooked apples in dessert, but I was very pleasantly surprised by how these turned out! I was afraid that the apples would be sour (we did use Granny Smith after all), but mixed with the cinnamon-sugar-spice concoction we put them into, they were the perfect amount of sweet and sour. 

Jessica (8/10): These little cups tasted just like an apple pie! The thick cookie cups were solid enough to hold the apple filling, but soft enough to keep the dessert the perfect level of chewiness. The cups also had plenty of flavor on their own, so the addition of the cinnamon apples (which were Granny Smith—my favorite) only made the treat more delightful.

Jack Skellington Oreo Pops – Recipe

Riding off the success of the Apple Crisp Cookie Cups, we assumed these Oreo pops would be a breeze. After all, last winter, we made some decent cake pops and this time we didn’t even have to make the cake! 

If only we knew how wrong we were. 

The cream gap in the regular-sized Oreos wasn’t large enough for our cake pop sticks, so our Oreo pops continuously fell apart even before dipping them in the chocolate. 

To make matters worse, our makeshift double boiler failed to fully melt our white chocolate. Of course it was only afterward we discovered Jessica had a real double boiler all along. 

The coconut oil left a distinct coconut flavor, which is a plus or a minus depending on your enjoyment of coconut. 

After we gave up on getting an even coating of white chocolate, it was time to decorate! Unfortunately the thick black icing made it difficult to make our Oreo disasters resemble Jack Skellington.

Alexa (5/10): There wasn’t anything inherently bad about these “cake pops.” I mean, it was just Oreo cookies dipped in candy melts, but our failed attempt at a double-boiler didn’t melt the chocolate down all of the way, which left a strange, lumpy texture on our mouths. I am a huge fan of coconut oil, so I enjoyed the additional flavor!

Jessica (3/10): Although this dessert sounded good in theory, the coconut flavor and fun faces we decorated our Oreo pops with were its only redeeming qualities. Normally, I’m a fan of Oreos, but the thick white chocolate was way too overpowering.

Final Thoughts

Alexa

1. Apple Crisp Cookie Cups 
2. Jack Skellington Oreo Pops
3. Dracula Dentures
4. Witch’s Brew

Jessica 

1. Apple Crisp Cookie Cups
2. Witch’s Brew
3. Dracula Dentures 
4. Jack Skelkington Oreo Pops

Perhaps these recipes were cursed or maybe our baking wasn’t up to par, but either way, it’s certain that this batch of Halloween treats definitely should’ve stayed six feet under.