Halloween Candy Cookies
Buttery, crispy, pleasantly chewy and filled to the brim with your favorite Halloween candy.
This is one of my favorite cookie recipes of all time. It was adapted from Bon Appetit’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. The base and method for this recipe have been used and recycled to benefit many other cookie recipes. The ratios are hard to beat and it always gives me the results I desire in a brown sugar cookie. I somehow end up using it time after time again. This recipe for Halloween Candy Cookies is no exception. From this fantastic recipe, I made the cookie of any trick-or-treater’s wildest dreams.
For these sugar loaded cookies, I simply replaced the chocolate chips with chopped up Halloween candies; specifically M&M’s, Kit Kats and Hershey Bars. But don’t let what I used in my cookies limit you in your cookie endeavors. I wanted to keep my cookies nut free but feel free to add whatever chocolate Halloween candy you desire. You want the delightful taste of peanut butter and chocolate, add Reese’s Cups. Or do almonds and coconut tickle your fancy? Simply add some Almond Joy or Mounds. That’s the beautiful thing about this recipe, you can let your trick or treat bag be your guide.
Halloween Candy Cookies
200 grams or 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
4 grams or ¾ tsp kosher salt
4 grams or ¾ tsp baking soda
169 grams or 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, divided
200 grams or 1 cup packed light brown sugar
50 grams or ¼ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
170 grams chopped Halloween Candy
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl; set aside.
Cook 1 stick or 113 grams of the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat with a rubber spatula. Cook until butter foams and browns, about 4 minutes. Transfer butter to a large heatproof bowl and let cool for 1 minute.
Cut remaining ½ stick; 56 g) butter into small pieces and add to brown butter (it should start to melt but not foam and sizzle, so test with one piece before adding the rest).
Once butter is melted, add both sugars and whisk until the sugar is incorporated and no lumps remain. Add egg and egg yolks and whisk until the mixture is smooth, add vanilla.
Fold reserved dry ingredients into butter mixture just until no more dry spots remain, add in chocolate.
Let the dough rest in the fridge for 10 minutes at minimum or but you can also leave them overnight. This helps the flour hydrate and the dough firm up, resulting in a cookie that won’t spread out too much.
Using an ice cream scoop , portion out your cookie dough. I weigh my portions to ensure they are all roughly the same size. For this recipe I weighed out the portions to be 54 grams giving me 16 large cookies in the end. Bake cookies on parchment lined baking sheets, until they are deep golden brown and firm around the edges, 8–10 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets for about 8 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Grab a glass of cold milk and enjoy!
*Notes: I recommend using only chocolate based Halloween candy for this recipe. Anything fruit based and/or gummy will not hold up well during the baking process.
I normally use weight measurements for this cookie recipe, they come out perfect every time without fail. But I did provide volume measurements for anyone who doesn’t own a kitchen scale.