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Creepily delicious Halloween-themed snacks

Spice up your celebrations with these spooky treats.

By Krissy Tripp

Published Oct. 29, 2010

It’s true we’ve grown past the age when ringing a doorbell and saying “trick or treat” is actually going to result in a handful of candy. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make our own tasty Halloween goodies. Plus, many of these recipes will double for Thanksgiving, and they’re really just plain good for fall.

When I think of Halloween treats, I think of caramel apples. They remind me of fall, and they’re super easy to make. I like to slice my apple into more sizable bites so I can eat them more like candy than a small meal. So, start by either slicing your apples and putting craft sticks into them or simply putting craft sticks into apples. Then you want to melt your caramel with a small amount of milk or butter. You can use butter, but milk will make it creamier.

Dunk the apples into the caramel and place it on a nonstick tray. The cleaner the apples, the better the caramel will stick. You can leave your recipe with plain caramel apples, or you could try to mix it up. I think nuts, cinnamon, melted chocolate and toffee make good options to spice up a simple caramel apple.

During my Halloween recipe search on the Food Network’s website, I found one for pumpkin parfaits, which I’m really excited to try.

To start making these, you need a baked pumpkin pie, vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt, whipped cream and walnuts or pecans.

According to the online recipe, you’ll scoop ¼ a cup of pumpkin filling into a glass. Top that with ¼ cup of ice cream or frozen yogurt, and repeat the layers. Then you can top it with whipped cream and candied nuts.

I think you could also sprinkle the top or middle layers with cinnamon, brown sugar or caramel.

Holidays are a great time to use fondant and decorative icing too. For example, make a simple sheet cake and top it with a thin, black layer of fondant or very smooth icing. Then use either decorative icing or more fondant to create Halloween shapes. Some ideas I had were Jack-o-Lanterns, skeletons, ghosts or creative monsters. Cutout sugar cookies make a great platform for decoration.

If you’re looking for a non-sweet party favor — or trying to avoid pumpkin flavors — go for something more fun in appearance. Mozzarella eyes are a good option. There are a lot of variations of the spices and seasoning of this recipe, but the basics are always the same.

Thinly slice a green olive, and cut a hole in the center (you could use a straw). Then do the same with a black olive. But rather than cut a hole, think of yourself as cutting the pupil. The hole you cut from the black olive will fit inside of the green olive’s hole. Then simply stick your “eyes” into the top of mozzarella balls and season as desired.

Of course, without the fun of trick-or-treating comes the possibility of Halloween drinking. Drinkoftheweek.com has plenty of options, such as the “Trick or Treat,” “Eyeball Martini,” “Vampire Kiss” or “Witch’s Brew.”

Whatever you’re doing to get in the Halloween spirit, be sure the have fun and enjoy.