Category — Halloween Recipes

Every year I try to find one new addition for my collection of Halloween recipes.  I think this one is going to be the one this year.  Until now, I had never even heard of pumpkin dip.  This sounds like it would be good with ginger snaps or vanilla wafers…like mini pumpkin pies for my Halloween party.

Easy Pumpkin Dip

• 2 blocks of cream cheese, softened (8 ounces each)
• 1 large can plain pumpkin (30 ounces)
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. ginger

Whip together all ingredients with a hand mixer, and you’re done!  Serve on a platter with ginger snaps and/or vanilla wafers.  Or, hollow out a small pumpkin and place dip inside for a really creative presentation.

Whatever you do, don’t throw away the pumpkin seeds leftover from carving Halloween pumpkins!  Roasted pumpkin seeds are a delicious and nutritious Halloween treat, and they’ll stay fresh for a couple weeks in a tightly sealed container or bag.  Here’s how to make them:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Separate pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin pulp and place in colander.  Rinse with water, and sift through with your hands to wash away any remaining pulp.  After rinsing, place seeds on paper towels to dry. When seeds are dry, place them on a cookie sheet, and toss with a drizzle of olive or canola oil.  Add in any seasonings you like such as salt, garlic salt, Old Bay seasoning, etc.

Bake seeds in a 350 degree oven, stirring every few minutes, until golden brown.

Read more about pumpkin seed nutrition facts.

I was strolling around a fall festival yesterday and tried a piece of pumpkin cheesecake at one of the stands.  It had a graham cracker crust, and extra cinnamon.  I’m not sure exactly what was in it, but the cheesecake recipe below seems pretty similar.  This would be great to add to your Halloween recipes, or keep in mind for Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:

• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 tbsp. melted butter
• 2 tbsp. packed brown sugar

Filling:

• 4 blocks of cream cheese (8 ounces each)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 1 can pumpkin pie filling (30 ounces)

Mix together crust ingredients and pat firmly on the bottom and sides of a greased spring form pan, and set aside.  Then place cream cheese in a mixing bowl, and beat until fluffy with a hand mixer.  Add sugar, and eggs (one at a time), blending well after each one. Then, add pumpkin and flour and blend.  Pour mixture into crust and bake at 325 degrees F for and 1 hour and 45 minutes, or until center is firm.

I found more pumpkin cheesecake recipes that include nuts, maple, and even bourbon….yum!

Did you know you can transform your favorite deviled egg recipes into spooky eyeballs for Halloween?  I’ve done this for my Halloween party for the last few years, and they always get gobbled up pretty fast.  With a little bit of ketchup and stuffed olives, it’s a snap.

In a large saucepan or stockpot, boil enough eggs to make the desired amount of deviled eggs.  Adding some salt to the boiling water will make it easier to remove the shells later.  You can make your deviled egg filling from any recipe, but here’s the recipe I use:

• A dozen hard-boiled eggs, peeled
• 1 can deviled ham (4.5 ounces)
• 1/4 cup sweet relish
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 4 tsp. mustard
• 12 green olives (stuffed with pimientos)
• Ketchup

Cut boiled and peel eggs in half lengthwise, remove yolks, and set aside whites.  Place egg yolks in a small mixing bowl and mash with a fork.  Add ham, mayo, relish, and mustard.  Mix well, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Fill egg whites with filling.  Top with olive halves to create the eyeball look.  If you want to make bloodshot eyeballs, use ketchup to create blood vessels.  This is easily done by placing the desired amount of ketchup in a disposable plastic bag.  Make a small hole in the bag and use it like an icing bag.  You can also poke a hole in a fast food ketchup packet. If you’re taking these to a Halloween party, I  recommend using a deviled egg carrier, as they like to slide around.

The photo above shows sliced black olives with a dot of ketchup in the center rather than stuffed green olives, and they’ve colored their egg filling green.  Anything goes here!

Here are more Halloween recipes for an especially fun Halloween night.

These pumpkin sandwich cookies filled with cream cheese frosting are a favorite Halloween treat at my house. They’re kind of unique, because contain pumpkin and chocolate chips. You can serve them on a Halloween trays or wrap them individually as a take home treat for the guests at your Halloween party.  Here’s the recipe:

• 1 cup solid pack pumpkin
• 1 package (16 ounces) refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1 container prepared cream cheese frosting

Preheat oven to 350.  Line a colander with a layer of paper towels.  Place the pumpkin on top of the paper towels, and allow it to drain for 20 minutes.  Allow the chocolate chip cookie dough to soften at room temperature for about 20 minutes.  Then, mix the cookie dough with the drained pumpkin, chocolate chips, flour, and pumpkin pie spice.  Drop in rounded teaspoonfuls on greased cookie sheets, and bake for approximately 9 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes, remove from cookie sheets, and make sandwiches using two pumpkin cookies and about a teaspoon (or two!) of the cream cheese frosting. So good! Recipe:  How Stuff Works.

After munching on all your favorite Halloween recipes, all the ghosts and goblins at your Halloween party are going to be thirsty.   A tall glass of Halloween punch or homemade witches’ brew will certainly hit the spot.  At my Halloween party, I like to fill up a big punch bowl and let guests serve themselves.

Here are a two Halloween punch recipes that will keep even a big crowd of monsters happy.

Bewitching Fruit Punch

• 4 cups ice
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 can (12 oz.) frozen cranberry juice drink concentrate
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 2 cans (12 oz.) lemon and/or lime flavored soda or sparkling water

Combine ice, lime juice, water, and cranberry drink concentrate in a blender, and blend on high speed until ice is finely chopped.  Pour mixture into punch bowl, and add lemon/lime soda. Garnish with fresh lime slices. Source:  Land O’ Lakes.

Ghoul-Aid

This recipe makes a spooky black Halloween punch.

• 1 packet of powdered grape drink mix
• 1 packet of powdered orange drink mix
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 quarts of water
• 1 liter of ginger ale

Combine sugar, water, and drink packets and stir until well blended. Pour into punch bowl, and add ginger ale just before serving.

Add a frozen hand:  If you want to add a floating ice hand to this Halloween punch, simply fill a clean rubber glove with water, knot the end to close it, and freeze.  Remove ice hand from glove, and float it in the punch.

Like the punch bowl in the photo?  I found it at Neiman Marcus.

Don’t forget about breakfast when it comes to finding Halloween recipes.  Nothing tastes better than warm pancakes in the fall, and there are plenty of creative twists for turning pancakes into real Halloween treats. The pancakes above were made using these Halloween pancake molds by Williams-Sonoma.

Here are some ideas for a fun Halloween breakfast:

Add some color:  Some natural orange food coloring would turn any pancake into a jolly Halloween pumpkin. If you don’t have pancake molds, you could add some eyes, a nose and a mouth using apple or orange slices.

Add more shapes:  Open-top Halloween cookie cutters (metal only) would work for making pancake bats, ghosts, or any other shape.  Spray them with non-stick spray before placing on your griddle or skillet, and remove just before flipping.

Here’s a recipe for apple pecan pancake batter to give your pancakes real autumn flavor:

Yum!  It’s finally time to make pumpkin recipes again.  Break out the Libby’s and get down on this fab treat that the whole family will love.  I particularly like the simple, oaty crust.  And you can get creative with the topping: pecan crunch, whipped cream or serve it with a scoop of ice cream.  Personally, I like all three!

Pumpkin Pie Squares

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 stick butter (1/2 cup), softened
• 1 can pumpkin
• 1 12 ounce can evaporated milk
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine flour, oats, brown sugar and mix thoroughly.  Add butter and crumble together until fully mixed.  Press out the mix in a 9×13 baking pan.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Combine all the rest of the ingredients thoroughly with a whisk.  Pour over baked bottom and cook for 30-40 minutes.  Once completely cool, cut into squares.

(Source: AllRecipes.com)

Suddenly, eating a kitty cat looks good to me! This was made from one of the cool cookie cutters I found while searching online. It came from Copper Gifts.

Now the dilemma for this and other spooky Halloween cakes and cookies is… how do you make black icing? Beware: it’s not as simple as adding black coloring to your white frosting. You’d have to use so much of it to make it black that it will ruin the taste. Some better ideas include starting with chocolate frosting and adding black coloring, or better yet, black gel coloring. Or you could add Hersey’s Cocoa powder to your white frosting. If you don’t want to mess with mixing, just buy some edible black sparkles. That might be better in the long run because the black icing is sure to turn your guest’s teeth a fowl-looking color. And that would be a real stroke of black cat bad luck!

Here’s an easy Halloween recipe that kids love and actually involves real, live fruit!  To make five Caramel Covered Apples you will need:

• 40 caramel cubes
• 5 apples
• 1 tablespoon water
• 5 wooden sticks
• wax paper

Wash and dry the apples.  Remove the stems and insert the wooden sticks in the stem holes until about half the stick is in the apple.  In a small double boiler over medium low, heat the caramel and water until thoroughly smooth, stirring continuously.  Dip the apples into the hot caramel sauce, coating them completely.  Set aside on greased wax paper.  You can store the apples in the frig but allow them to set at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving.