Everything I actually make for Halloween in one place: decorated sugar cookies, things you might not bake in the morning, blondes eating leftover candy, and pumpkin bakes worth turning on the oven for.
I’ll be honest with you, I’m not much of a Halloween person. Not the blood, not the bones, not the giant spiders on the front of people’s houses. But I am very much a person who will bake for a party, and Halloween is a very good excuse for a party. So here’s my entire October rotation, sorted by what you actually need to do it.
If you are decorating cookies
My Halloween sugar cookies the ones i make every year are spider webs and little black cats and one orange cat that isn’t scary but deserves a cookie. A spider web is actually just a toothpick dragged through wet ice. No one needs to know that.
If you want a cookie sheet with no piping at all, then Bakehouse Texas Chocolate Chip Cookies are huge and disappear the fastest, and The new classic Snickerdoodle! it makes the whole kitchen smell like autumn.
If you have a mountain of leftover candy
This is it Candy Bar Blondies exist for Brown butter, brown sugar and one and a half cups of sugar in a bowl, chopped. They bake in about 25 minutes in one pan and use up the candy no one wants. If you prefer to keep it simple, my The best classic blonde recipe is the foundation, and if you really don’t have the energy, here’s how to do it a box of brownies is better and no one will know.
If you need something, don’t bake
Candy Corn and Salted Peanut Rice Krispie Treats take about ten minutes and hit the right salty-sweet thing that candy corn is for, even if you claim you don’t like candy corn. Mom’s Peanut Butter Balls! The other option is no-oven, and they’re dangerously easy to eat standing at the counter.
If you want pumpkin stuff
Pumpkin bread with walnuts is the loaf I’ve been making on repeat since September, and Brown Butter Pumpkin Texas Sheet Cake it’s what I bring when I’m feeding a real crowd because a sheet cake feeds everyone and travels smooth.
If you want an apple instead
Apple Cinnamon Texas Sheet Cake it’s apple’s answer to pumpkin leaf cake. It Overnight Apple Fritter Focaccia is the show, you start it the night before and wake up to it. And? Apple Butter and Cream Cheese Kolaches they’re the ones people ask about afterwards.
If you are having a real party
Do it Homemade yeast doughnuts. They are a project and well worth it, and a tray of warm donuts ends a Halloween party better than I know. The Ultimate: Cookies and Cream Brownies are a low-effort version of the same idea.
What to do if you only have an hour?
Rice krispies go, then blondes in that order. The treats are made in ten minutes and set while you do everything else, and the blondies are one bowl, one pan, about 25 minutes in a 350 degree F oven. It’s a full Halloween plate with almost no planning, which is usually the situation I find myself in.