2. Pour in the xanthan while constantly whisking. Set aside. (In case you prefer thinner blood, add just 1 pinch of xanthan. 2 pinches (2 ml) makes a quite thick, curdled-looking “blood”.)

3. For the “toad brains”: In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix the cream cheese and the garlic bread seasoning with a spoon. Refrigerate.

4. When ready to serve, stir the soy sauce mixture carefully into the cream cheese mixture, creating swirls.

5. Serve with crackers.

In a medium-sized bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients into the creamed mixture while continually blending.

Roll the dough into a ball and cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 F. Cut the dough into four sections and working with only a quarter while the rest is still in the refrigerator, roll heaping tablespoons of the dough into a finger shape. Squeeze the finger in the center to make a knuckle shape. Press an almond firmly into one end of the cookie. With a sharp knife make lines on the knuckle and just under the almond to simulate folds in the skin (see photo).

Place on a greased cookie sheet and repeat with the remaining dough.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until pale golden. Then remove the pands from the oven and let the cookies cool for 3 minutes. Carefully lift up the almond and squeeze the red decorator gel onto the back of the nail bed and then replace the almond, letting the gel ooze out. Remove the fingers onto racks to cool completely.

Working quickly while the chocolate is melted, brush the cones with the melted chocolate until they are completely covered. Add a dab of the melted chocolate to the opening of the cone and carefully secure it onto a cookie.

Using your icing gel, pipe color around the base of the cone. Add sprinkles. Put it onto a plate or baking sheet, cookie side down. Repeat with the remaining cones and cookies.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes or until cones have set. Use as party decor or enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Taste of Home.

In a large stand up mixer bowl add peanut butter, sugar, egg, vanilla and baking powder. Mix well.

Drop dough by large tablespoonfuls onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Make hash marks in the cookie tops with a fork (see photo). Bake 8-10 minutes until firm around the edges. Do not over bake. Cookies will continue firming up as they cool.

Once baked, remove sheet from the oven and remove cookies from cookie sheet. Gently press a pretzel rod into the bottom of each cookie. Let cookies cool on a rack or a sheet of parchment.

Meanwhile in a saucepan over medium/low heat add chocolate chips. Stir and heat until melted. Once melted drizzle chocolate over the pretzel rod top and cookie bottom to secure the “broom”.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker.

Open each chocolate sandwich cookie, and keep the half without frosting. If you plan on keeping the chocolate cookies with the frosting (and you should), stick 2 of the frosting halves together and you have double stuffed cookies!

While brownies are cooling, crumble 20 cookie halves without frosting into fine pieces. This should equal about 1 cup. Set aside.

Create the graves by taking 10-15 cookie halves (however many graves you’d like) without frosting and use a sharp knife to gently cut the cookies into grave shapes.

After the graves are cut, prepare the vanilla frosting in a piping bag or decorating tool. Decorate graves as you’d like. You can get creative here: “RIP,” drawing a skull, years, etc. The sky’s the limit! Or … the ground?

Once the brownies have cooled, spread an even layer of chocolate frosting across the brownies. Next, sprinkle the cookie crumbles evenly across. Place chocolate pretzels along the perimeter of the brownies to create the graveyard fence. Finally, press the graves into the brownies.

Enjoy and be safe this Halloween!

In a large bowl using a mixer, cream together butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and sugar. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Beat well.

In a medium sized bowl, use a spoon to mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Add this into the creamed mixture. Beat on low speed until a stiff dough forms. Fold in 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.

Shape into 1-inch balls. Place them 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Remove pan from the oven and top each cookie immediately with a peanut butter cup, placed upside down. Remove cookies from the pans to a wire rack to cool.

While the cookies are cooling melt the rest of the chocolate chips in the microwave stirring every 15 seconds until melted.

Once the cookies have cooled, cut licorice into 1 inch pieces. Using melted chocolate as glue dot the chocolate in 8 spots around the peanut butter cup where you want your legs to be. Then attach 4 pieces of licorice to each side of the peanut butter cup near the very bottom. Dot some more chocolate onto the top of the peanut butter cups (where you want your eyes to be) and stick two eyes on top of each. Let set until chocolate is firm.

In a heavy medium pot, stir together cream and sea salt. Heat over medium until just before simmering, stirring occasionally. Stir in the honey with a wooden spoon and place a candy thermometer onto the pot to track the temperature. Increase heat to medium-high, stirring constantly. Mixture will come to a boil and will cook for 10-15 minutes. Once the mixture reaches hard ball stage or 260°F, remove the thermometer and remove the pot from the heat. Continuing to stir, dip the base of the pot into the cold water, taking care to ensure that no water gets into the pot. Stir until the caramel is smooth and beginning to thicken. Place pot on the trivet and tilt so the caramel pools on one side.

Spin each apple on its side in the pooled caramel until it is covered to your liking. If the caramel is sliding off the apple or is thinning too much, let it cool for a few more seconds. You may also need to blot the bottom of the apple on the bottom of the pot above the caramel pool to allow extra caramel to come off. Place each apple on the parchment-lined baking sheet.

You’ll need to work quickly to prevent the caramel from becoming too cool. If the caramel becomes difficult to work with, place it back on the stove for a few seconds to heat it back up.

Once all apples are coated with caramel, allow them to cool for 1-2 hours until set, then store in the refrigerator. Remove from the fridge 30 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks.

Cut the licorice into about 2-inch lengths and place it on the sides of the ice cream head like hair. Place candies into the front of the scoop of ice cream, for eyes. Add the candy corn as the nose.

Serve immediately or store in an airtight container and freeze. I froze a few of them for about 8 hours and they turned out great.

Notes: To avoid quick melting of the ice cream, have all the candy cut up and ready to go before taking out the ice cream and decorating your witch.

In a large bowl mix canola oil and butter then add cocoa and stir until well blended. Beat in the eggs with a mixer. Add sugar and vanilla, beat well. Add flour and salt and mix until most of the flour is combined. Stir in chocolate chips using a wooden spoon.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan and bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes (mine took 22 minutes). Remove from the oven and allow to cool before cutting.

For the frosting:
In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter. Add the powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add the cocoa powder and vanilla and mix it in. Add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until your desired consistency is reached. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and whip one last time for 2-3 minutes to make sure the ingredients are mixed.

Place the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a small round, leaf, or star tip. Set aside

To assemble the spiders:
Use a circle cookie/biscuit cutter to cut out your desired size of circles from the pan of brownies for the spider “bodies”. Place the circles on a sheet of wax paper for prep, or place them right on your serving tray.

Take the black legs and stick four on each side of the spider, repeat with remaining spiders. Use the frosting and pipe small spikes on the top of the brownies as the spiders hair. You can also just roughly smooth the frosting on with a knife.

Place two eyes on the edge of one end of the spider, making sure to use the frosting as glue for the eyes. Repeat with remaining spiders.

If desired sprinkle some black sprinkles on top of the frosting.

Serve or cover for up to four days.

*Please see blog post for notes.

Recipe inspired by Ali at gimmesomeoven.com.

Preheat skillet or frying pan over medium heat. Generously butter all slices of bread. Place unshaped slice butter-side-down onto skillet and add 1 slice of cheese on top. Take the shaped slice, butter it, and put it on top of the sandwich, butter-side-up.

Grill until lightly browned and flip over. Continue grilling until cheese is melted. Repeat with remaining slices of bread.