Spooky Halloween Treats
Halloween is fast approaching and I could not be more excited! I have always loved Halloween, it is definitely my favorite holiday. The thing is, when you’re too old to trick-or-treat, Halloween loses a little of its original, wholesome fun. As I have gotten older, I’ve tried to find new ways to bring that fun, child-like joy back to Halloween. Making little treats like these has been the perfect way to make the time leading up to Halloween exciting again. This would also be a great project to do with children. Once the Oreos have been dipped in the candy coating, they can be transformed into anything you want. This allows for so much creativity, which I think kids would love. So, whether you’re celebrating Halloween with your children or you’re in your twenties like me and just want to make some cute Halloween treats, you will need the following ingredients to get started.
I chose to go with golden Oreos as I was not sure how well the colored candy melts would cover a normal Oreo. After making these, however, I have found that the candy melts are very thick and cover the Oreo well, so I think a normal chocolate Oreo would work. I would also suggest using a chocolate Oreo or another fun flavor, as the golden Oreos are delicious, but when dipped in the sugary candy melts, it leads to an ultra-sweet treat. If you love the golden Oreos, then definitely use those! The flavor is totally up to you and your preferences, but after having made (and eaten) a lot of these cookies, I would personally recommend mixing it up with a fun flavored Oreo.
You will also need a tube of icing, some candy eyeballs, and sprinkles of your choice. I went with black icing as I felt that would be the best for the designs I wanted to make, but you can get creative with the colors and use whatever icing you would like. I found the sprinkles and the icing at my local grocery store, but if the grocery store you go to doesn’t have a great selection, I would recommend taking a trip to a craft store instead. That is where I found the candy eyeballs, and they also had a much larger selection of food coloring, sprinkles, and other baking supplies.
The next thing you will need is candy melts. If you have never used candy melts before, I’d say the best way to describe them is to say they are almost like white chocolate, but they melt down very smoothly and are a little sweeter than typical chocolate. I found these at the craft store as well. They had a lot of different colors, but I went with green, orange, and white. I was hoping they would have purple as well, but unfortunately, that was not a color that was available at my local store. I figured I could dye some of the white melts to be purple, and so I grabbed some food dye too.
If you do decide to dye some of the candy melts to be a different color, I would recommend using liquid food dye or gel food dye, as well as some coconut oil to thin it out. I found that the candy melts started to get clumpy and hard to stir after adding in my gel food dye, so I melted down some coconut oil and stirred it in as well, which worked perfectly to make the mixture thin and smooth again. You can use any oil to thin out your mixture, however, I would highly recommend using coconut oil unless you have an allergy, as coconut oil is solid at room temperature, while other oils are not. If you use an oil that is liquid at room temperature, you are risking the candy melts not setting as they dry. But if you use coconut oil, you have a better chance of the candy melt coating hardening again since the coconut oil will solidify within the mixture as it cools.
Once you melt all of your candy melts, all there is left to do is coat the Oreos and decorate! I found that the best way to coat the Oreos was to drop a cookie into the bowl and use a fork to swirl it around, flip it, and then pick it up with the fork, gently tapping the fork on the bowl to help remove the excess candy melt coating. Once the Oreo is coated, place the cookies on a cookie sheet or a cooling rack to dry and set.
I decided to make little Frankenstein monsters, jack-o-lanterns, mummies, and purple monsters with silly eyes. I used the black icing to stick the eyes on and draw the faces, and I used the extra white candy melts to make the mummy’s wrappings. I even used the sprinkles to create the neck bolts on Frankenstein. This is where you can get creative, and depending on the colors of candy melts and icing you are using, you can make so many different characters! A ghost would be adorable, and if you use black candy melts, you could make bats or spiders as well.
Halloween activities like this are such a great way to enjoy the spooky season. Get creative and make your favorite characters, then share with friends and family, or eat them all yourself - this is your Halloween treat!
