Menu · BakingNo. 4887 · The 2026 edition
The best Halloween cookies, from pumpkins to spiders to witch hats.
Marshmallow ghosts, slice-and-bake pumpkins, peanut butter spiders, mummies and witch hats, with notes on which suit small helpers and which need a patient decorator. Every entry links to the creator’s full recipe.
Halloween cookies tend to fall into two camps: the ones a kid can help with on a school night, and the ones that want a steady hand and a free afternoon. This list covers both, ranked best first, and each note says which kind you’re signing up for.
Expect pumpkins, spiders, mummies and a pair of witch hats, plus a few oddballs like slime-filled cookies and witch fingers. It works for baking with kids or building a party plate, and each recipe is credited to the creator who wrote it.
Twenty-four Halloween cookies, best first
- Vegan Marshmallow Ghost Cookies — Each one stacks a chocolate cookie, fluffy cocoa frosting and a white chocolate-covered marshmallow, with dark chocolate eyes and a mouth to make the ghost. Dairy-free ingredients and aquafaba frosting keep it fully plant-based, so vegan guests get a ghost too. The guide
- Super Fun and Spooky Slime Cookies For Halloween — Black-dyed cookie dough, lime curd, and a texture that eats like slime in the best way. The steps stay simple, so it’s an easy yes for baking with kids who like their treats a little gross. The guide
- Slice & Bake Pumpkin Cookies — Plain, orange and green dough get rolled into one log, and each slice comes out as a pumpkin with its green stem built in. The look comes from the dough, not decorating, so it’s a quick chill and a short bake from there. The guide
- Spider Chocolate Chip Cookies — Soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies with extra chips and a hand-piped spider on top. The piping is where the patience goes, but the result is eerie in a fun way that kids and adults both enjoy. The guide
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Mummy Cookies — Peanut butter cookies get topped with chocolate ganache, then a vanilla glaze drizzle and candy eyes, and suddenly they’re mummies. Billed as easy to make and fun to decorate, they’re a good bet for kid helpers. The guide
- Halloween Sugar Cookies — The classic route: buttery dough, chilled, rolled and baked to golden edges, then outlined and flooded with royal icing. Sprinkles and decals go on while the icing is wet, and everything needs time to set, so this one suits a patient decorator. The guide
- Hocus Pocus Cookies — A swirl of green, orange and purple dough, studded with white chocolate chips and crunchy sprinkles, makes a soft, buttery cookie that looks like a spell went sideways. Chill the dough first and they bake up with better shape and texture. The guide
- Halloween Pumpkin Cookies — Spiced pumpkin cookies sandwich a chocolate ganache filling, and the tops are cut with jack-o’-lantern faces so the chocolate shows through. Cutting and assembling make it a slow-afternoon project, best for bakers who like building something to share. The guide
- Chocolate Halloween Cookies — Rich dark chocolate cookies come loaded with M&Ms, sprinkles and candy eyeballs, decorated right out of the oven after the dough chills. A grown-up can run the tray while kids place the candy, and they keep at room temperature for up to five days. The guide
- Halloween Peanut Butter Spider Cookies Recipe — A frozen Reese’s cup and candy eyes sit on soft peanut butter dough to form the spider’s body, and chocolate legs get piped on after baking. Piping is the decorating job, and a short fridge chill sets everything. The guide
- Spider Web Halloween Sugar Cookies — Round sugar cookies get a flood of white royal icing, then thin orange and black lines piped on and dragged into a web while the base is still wet. Two piping-tip sizes and cooled cookies are the secret, so give this one a calm afternoon. The guide
- Witch Hat Cookies — Pumpkin-spiced chocolate dough rolled in black sugar is baked and topped with a Hershey Kiss, then given a black icing ribbon and red rose sprinkle once cool. It’s the chocolate-pumpkin hat and the more dressed-up one; the purple peanut butter version comes later. The guide
- Frosted Halloween Sugar Cookies — Orange and purple frosting and festive sprinkles top a soft, buttery sugar cookie, from a dough chilled so it handles easily. It’s the lower-key alternative to the royal icing cookies earlier on the list, and making them is part of the fun. The guide
- Halloween Cookie Cake — One giant cookie, loaded with chocolate chips, wears green, orange and purple frosting piped into festive shapes, plus Halloween sprinkles and candy eyes. It’s party-sized, and the piping is where you get to be creative. The guide
- Halloween and Horror Cookies — Less a single recipe than a roundup of cookie ideas, with ghosts, pumpkins and witches to borrow from. Handy when you’re planning a party plate and want a few different looks. The guide
- Spooky Oreo Brookie Cups and Stuffed Sugar Cookies — Two bakes from one session: brownie cups baked around an Oreo and topped with layered cookie dough, plus sugar cookies that each hide a whole Oreo inside. M&Ms and creepy dough shapes supply the Halloween, and both are billed as easy. The guide
- Halloween Cookie Pizza — Slice this one like pizza: a giant pumpkin-spiced cookie, rolled to a 12-inch round, baked golden, frosted black with almond-flavored buttercream and topped with Halloween candy. Let the kids pick the toppings; leftovers keep in the fridge for up to a week. The guide
- Spooky Witch Finger Cookie Recipe: A Halloween Treat — Buttery almond dough gets shaped into fingers, with a blanched almond for each nail and red gel for the severed look. It’s the gross-out pick of the list, and the goal is realism, so it rewards some fiddling. The guide
- Witch Hat Halloween Cookies — Gel food coloring turns the peanut butter dough purple, then a chocolate kiss is pressed into each baked cookie and frozen briefly so it doesn’t melt. Sprinkles or purple sanding sugar finish them, making this the simpler witch hat and a friendly one for kids. The guide
- Mummy Pumpkin Cookies — Pastry cookies, really: a buttery, flaky crust wrapped around creamy spiced pumpkin pie filling in a mummy shape, baked golden and topped with candy eyes. Pick it if you love pumpkin pie and want a mummy on the plate. The guide
- Halloween Sugar Cookie Recipe — Little pumpkins start as soft cream cheese dough, then get orange frosting, candy eyes and a green M&M stem. The recipe suggests baking with kids, and eyes-and-stem decorating keeps it about as kid-friendly as a sugar cookie gets. The guide
- Halloween Monster Cookies — Candy eyes and Halloween sprinkles turn chocolate chip cookies into monsters. It’s pitched as a family baking project with just a few easy steps, which makes it one of the safest bets for a bake with kids. The guide
- Spooky Chocolate Cookies for Halloween — Cocoa dough with a pinch of cinnamon and espresso powder, packed with two sizes of chocolate chips, gets rolled in Halloween sprinkles before baking. Candy eyeballs go on the second the tray comes out, which is the job to hand a kid. The guide
- Witches Broomstick Cookies — A pretzel rod becomes the broom handle on a soft peanut butter cookie, and a chocolate and peanut butter drizzle finishes it after baking. Drizzling is the main decorating job, which small hands can handle. The guide
Halloween is the one holiday where a lopsided cookie counts as a feature.
Pick two or three for a night: one no-fuss bake the kids can run, like the monster cookies or the pumpkin-faced sugar cookies, and one showpiece for whoever has an afternoon, like the royal icing sugar cookies or the jack-o’-lantern sandwiches. Several of these need chilled dough, so start those first, then set out cold milk or hot cider. When you want more than cookies, the rest of our Halloween baking is waiting.