Get ready for a bewitching baking adventure with these incredible Halloween Monster Eye Cookies! These delightful treats are more than just cookies; they’re a celebration of spooky fun, combining a soft, chewy, and thick texture with an explosion of colorful M&M’s, rich chocolate chips, and delightful butterscotch chips. Perfect for getting into the Halloween spirit, these monster cookies are sure to be the star of any ghoulish gathering or a cozy, scary movie night at home. Prepare to impress your friends and family with these irresistibly creepy and cute creations!
Why These Spooky Monster Cookies Are a Must-Bake
There’s something truly special about these Halloween Monster Eye Cookies that makes them stand out as a seasonal favorite. We’ve taken our beloved original Monster Cookie recipe and given it a festive, frightfully fun twist, adding whimsical candy monster eyeballs that transform a classic into an iconic Halloween dessert. If you’re searching for an easy yet impressive treat to make this October, look no further!
These homemade Halloween cookies are not only incredibly simple to prepare, making them accessible for bakers of all skill levels, but they also boast an unbelievably delicious flavor profile. Each bite is a harmonious blend of creamy peanut butter, hearty old-fashioned oats, and a generous medley of fun candies. They strike the perfect balance between sweet and satisfying, ensuring every cookie is a delightful experience.
Imagine the joy and excitement when you present a platter of these monster-sized cookies at your next Halloween party! Their vibrant colors and playful candy eyeballs are guaranteed to capture everyone’s attention, inspiring awe and admiration for your baking prowess. They’re more than just a treat; they’re an edible piece of art that perfectly encapsulates the festive spirit of Halloween.
The chewy texture, the rich flavors of chocolate and butterscotch, and the delightful crunch of M&M’s create a multi-sensory experience that appeals to both kids and adults. Plus, the convenience of a straightforward recipe means you can spend less time in the kitchen and more time enjoying the spooky season with your loved ones. These cookies are truly a celebration in every bite, promising to become a cherished part of your annual Halloween traditions.
If you love discovering new and exciting cookie recipes, be sure to explore some of our other crowd-pleasing favorites like the timeless Hello Dolly Cookies, melt-in-your-mouth Butterball Cookies, perfectly soft Sugar Cookies with Heavy Cream, elegantly sweet Glazed Maple Shortbread Cookies, and the delightful Almond Joy Cookies.
Gathering Your Hauntingly Good Ingredients
Crafting these phenomenal Halloween Monster Eye Cookies begins with a selection of high-quality ingredients, carefully chosen to deliver that perfect balance of flavor and texture. Below is a comprehensive list, but for exact measurements and a detailed breakdown, please refer to the recipe card further down this page.
The Irresistible Cookie Base
The foundation of these incredible cookies is built upon classic pantry staples, each playing a crucial role in achieving their signature soft, thick, and chewy consistency:
- All-Purpose Flour: The primary structural component, providing the necessary body for our monster-sized cookies.
- Unsalted Butter: Essential for richness and creating a tender crumb. Using unsalted butter allows you to control the overall salt content in the recipe. Ensure it’s softened to room temperature for optimal creaming.
- Eggs: Act as a binder, adding moisture and helping the cookies achieve their soft, chewy texture. Room temperature eggs emulsify better with the other ingredients.
- Creamy Peanut Butter: A star ingredient that gives these monster cookies their distinctive flavor and extra chewiness. Opt for a classic creamy variety for the best results, as natural peanut butter can alter the texture.
- Cornstarch: The secret weapon for extra soft and chewy cookies. It helps to tenderize the dough and prevent over-spreading.
- Dark Brown Sugar: Contributes to the cookies’ deep, caramelized flavor and moistness, thanks to its molasses content.
- Granulated Sugar: Provides sweetness and helps with spreading and browning, giving the cookies a slightly crisp edge.
- Old-Fashioned Oats: These give the cookies their characteristic hearty texture and a satisfying chew. They hold their shape well during baking, unlike quick oats.
- Vanilla Extract: A fundamental flavor enhancer, adding warmth and depth to the cookie dough.
- Kosher Salt: Balances the sweetness and enhances all the other flavors, preventing the cookies from tasting flat.
Spooky Candy Add-Ins
What would monster cookies be without their colorful, playful additions? These ingredients are what make our Halloween version truly special and visually striking:
- Ghoul’s Mix M&M’s: These festive M&M’s, typically featuring Halloween-themed colors, are crucial for both flavor and visual appeal, adding a satisfying chocolate crunch and a burst of color.
- Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips: Complement the M&M’s with classic chocolate flavor, melting beautifully into gooey pockets throughout the cookies.
- Butterscotch Chips: Provide a unique, sweet, and slightly salty caramel-like flavor that elevates these monster cookies beyond the ordinary.
- Candy Eyeballs: The absolute highlight for our Halloween theme! These edible eyeballs transform ordinary cookies into adorable (or spooky!) monsters. You can typically find them in the baking or cake decorating aisle of most major grocery stores, especially during the Halloween season. Make sure to have plenty on hand for maximum monster effect!
With these key ingredients at your disposal, you’re well on your way to creating a batch of Halloween Monster Eye Cookies that are as delicious as they are fun to look at!
Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting Your Monster Eye Cookies
Creating these delightful Halloween Monster Eye Cookies is a straightforward and enjoyable process. Follow these detailed steps to ensure your cookies turn out perfectly soft, chewy, and loaded with monster-sized personality.
Step 1: Prepare Your Dry and Wet Ingredients
In a large mixing bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and kosher salt. Use a whisk to thoroughly mix these dry ingredients together until they are well combined. Once mixed, set this bowl aside. In a separate, larger bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), cream together the softened unsalted butter and creamy peanut butter until the mixture is smooth and evenly blended. This typically takes a couple of minutes on medium speed. Next, add the dark brown sugar and granulated sugar to the butter and peanut butter mixture. Continue to cream these ingredients together until the mixture becomes light, fluffy, and noticeably paler in color. Finally, beat in the large eggs one at a time, ensuring each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. Stir in the vanilla extract until just combined.
Step 2: Combine and Chill the Dough
Gradually add the whisked dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix on low speed or stir by hand until the dry and wet ingredients are just combined. Be careful not to overmix the dough, as overmixing can lead to tough cookies. Once the flour mixture is mostly incorporated, gently fold in the old-fashioned oats, Ghoul’s Mix M&M’s, mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips. Stir until the add-ins are evenly distributed throughout the dough. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate the cookie dough for a minimum of 2 hours. Chilling the dough is a crucial step; it allows the flavors to meld, prevents the cookies from spreading too much during baking, and contributes to that desirable thick, chewy texture.
Step 3: Prepare for Baking
Once the dough has chilled sufficiently, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. This prevents sticking and ensures even baking and easy cleanup. Using a large cookie scoop or a measuring cup, drop heaping 1/4 cup-sized balls of the chilled dough onto the prepared baking sheets. Make sure to space the dough balls about 2 to 3 inches apart, as these cookies will spread to a glorious “monster size.” For perfectly round cookies, you can gently roll each portion of dough into a neat ball before placing it on the baking sheet.
Step 4: Bake to Perfection
Before placing the baking sheets in the oven, you can press a few extra M&M’s onto the top of each cookie dough ball. While not strictly necessary for taste, this step enhances the visual appeal, making the finished cookies even more colorful and inviting. Bake the cookies for approximately 12 to 14 minutes. It’s important to note that the cookies may appear slightly underdone or soft in the center when you remove them from the oven; this is entirely normal and desired. They will continue to cook and set as they cool, which helps to maintain their wonderfully soft and chewy interior.
Step 5: Add the Eyes and Cool
Immediately after removing the cookies from the oven, and while they are still warm and soft, gently press the candy eyeballs into the tops of each cookie. The residual heat from the cookies will help the eyeballs adhere. This step is optional, but it’s what gives these treats their fun, quirky, and “monster eye” appearance! Allow the cookies to cool on the baking pan for about 5 minutes. This cooling period on the hot pan helps them firm up without becoming brittle. After 5 minutes, carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Cooling on a rack ensures air circulation, preventing the bottoms from becoming soggy and allowing them to achieve their final, perfect texture.
These sinfully scrumptious treats are a mash-up of flavors that’ll leave you craving bite after monstrous bite. The combination of peanut butter, chocolate, butterscotch, and oats creates a rich and complex flavor profile that is utterly addicting. Each cookie is a masterpiece of texture and taste, guaranteed to disappear quickly from any party platter.
Expert Tips for Perfect Monster Cookies
Achieving the perfect batch of soft, chewy, and visually stunning Halloween Monster Eye Cookies is easy with a few expert tips. These small adjustments can make a big difference in the final outcome of your spooky treats:
- Measure Flour Accurately: Precision in measuring flour is key for consistent results. Always aerate your flour first by fluffing it with a fork. Then, spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off with the back of a knife. Never scoop directly from the bag, as this can compact the flour and lead to using too much, resulting in dry, dense cookies.
- Choose the Right Peanut Butter: For the classic monster cookie experience, we highly recommend using a regular, creamy peanut butter like Jif or Skippy. These brands contain added oils, sugar, and salt that contribute to the desired texture, flavor, and moisture of the cookies. Avoid using all-natural peanut butter, as its lack of stabilizers and separated oils can significantly change the texture, making the cookies too crumbly or greasy, and altering the overall taste.
- Avoid Overbaking: This is perhaps the most crucial tip for maintaining softness. Monster cookies should appear slightly underdone in the very center when you pull them from the oven. The edges might be lightly golden, but the middle should still look a bit soft and puffy. This underbaking ensures that as they cool, they achieve that ideal soft and chewy texture rather than becoming hard or crumbly.
- Adjust for Crunchier Cookies: If your preference leans towards a cookie with a bit more crispness, you can certainly bake them for an additional 1-2 minutes. Keep a close eye on them during this extra time to prevent burning, and remember that even slightly overbaked cookies can lose some of their signature chewiness.
- Understand Residual Heat: Remember that cookies continue to cook and set even after they are removed from the oven, especially while they’re still on the hot baking pan. This “carry-over cooking” is why pulling them out when they look slightly underdone is so important.
- Timing for Candy Eyeballs: Do not add the candy eyes before baking! The heat of the oven can cause them to melt, discolor, or even lose their shape, turning brown and losing their playful charm. Instead, always gently press the candy eyeballs onto the cookies immediately after they come out of the oven, while the cookies are still warm and pliable.
- Enhancing Eyeball Adhesion: For an extra secure placement of those crucial candy monster eyes, try pressing a few additional mini chocolate chips onto the dough balls before baking. When the cookies come out of the oven, the chocolate chips will be soft and warm, providing a perfect, slightly sticky surface for the candy eyes to adhere to more firmly. This little trick ensures your monsters keep their gaze!
Creative Variations to Unleash Your Inner Cookie Monster
One of the best things about monster cookies is their incredible versatility. They are truly one of the best cookie recipes to customize for any holiday or occasion, making them a fantastic canvas for your creativity. Here are some fun variations to try:
- Seasonal Color Swaps: The most obvious and impactful variation is to switch out the M&M’s for seasonal colors. For example, use red and green M&M’s for Christmas, pastel colors for Easter, red, white, and blue for patriotic holidays, or even school colors for graduation parties. This simple change instantly transforms the theme of your monster cookies.
- Sprinkle Some Fun: Add some festive colored sprinkles to the tops of your cookies before baking, or even after, for extra visual appeal and a delightful crunch. Halloween-themed sprinkles (bats, ghosts, pumpkins) would be perfect for these Monster Eye Cookies.
- Utilize Leftover Halloween Candy: Don’t let that surplus Halloween candy go to waste! Chop up your favorite candy bars like Snickers, Milky Way, or Reese’s, or add whoppers, toffee bits, or extra Reese’s Pieces into the dough. The more variety, the more monstrously delicious these cookies become. Even crushed pretzels can add a fantastic salty-sweet crunch!
- Embrace Different M&M’s: While Ghoul’s Mix M&M’s are perfect for Halloween, feel free to use standard M&M’s in other recipes. Our personal favorite for these cookies, for an even meltier chocolate experience, is to use mini M&M’s. While mini M&M’s are typically only available in standard colors, their smaller size distributes chocolate more evenly throughout the cookie.
- Add Different Chips: Experiment with other types of chips beyond chocolate and butterscotch. White chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or even dark chocolate chips can add new layers of flavor and texture.
These chocolate chip crazy-eyed Halloween Monster cookies are not just a dessert; they’re an experience! They are a fantastic Halloween treat for parties, offering both visual charm and irresistible taste. They also make a fun, festive snack for the family during a scary movie night, adding to the spooky ambiance with every delicious bite.
So, for your next Halloween celebration, make sure to try this fun and simple Halloween cookie recipe. It’s the perfect spooky treat that embodies all the joy of the season. The entire family, from the littlest goblins to the grown-up monsters, will adore these cute monster cookies, with all their wonderful Halloween colors and charming candy eyes. Get ready for smiles, screams of delight, and empty cookie plates!
Frequently Asked Questions About Monster Cookies
Monster cookies are a beloved type of cookie known for their hearty texture and generous mix-ins. They typically feature a base of peanut butter and oats, generously loaded with M&M’s and chocolate chips. Many recipes, like ours, also include other delicious additions such as butterscotch chips, shredded coconut, or chopped nuts. The result is consistently thick, satisfyingly large, and wonderfully chewy cookies! You can essentially think of them as a delightful fusion of a peanut butter cookie and an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, but with a vibrant, playful twist.
The type of oats you use significantly impacts the final texture of your cookies. Old-fashioned rolled oats are highly recommended because they retain their structure during baking, contributing to a substantial texture and a fantastic, satisfying chew. Quick oats or instant oats, being smaller and thinner, absorb more moisture and tend to break down more, resulting in very soft cookies with less discernible texture. Steel-cut oats, on the other hand, are too firm and will not cook thoroughly within the cookie, making them unsuitable for most cookie recipes.
The key to soft and chewy cookies lies primarily in the baking process. All ovens can vary, so it’s essential to watch your cookies closely. As mentioned in the tips, remove the cookies from the oven when the very center still appears slightly underdone and somewhat soft. The cookies will continue to cook and firm up as they cool on the hot baking sheet, preventing them from becoming dry or hard. If you find your cookies are consistently too dry, consider reducing your baking time by 1-2 minutes for future batches.
Absolutely! This recipe is excellent for make-ahead convenience. You can prepare the cookie dough up to 4 days in advance. Simply cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap or transfer the dough to an airtight container, and store it in the refrigerator. Chilling the dough even longer can often enhance the flavors and result in a better cookie texture.
To maintain their freshness and delicious texture, allow your Halloween Monster Eye Cookies to cool completely on a wire rack before storing them. Once fully cooled, place them in an airtight container or a freezer-safe bag. They will stay fresh and soft at room temperature for up to 4 days. Storing them correctly will prevent them from drying out.
Yes, monster cookies are very freezer-friendly, both as baked cookies and as raw dough. For dough, simply form the dough balls as directed in the recipe, then place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze until they are solid (about 1 hour). Once frozen solid, transfer the dough balls to a freezer-safe container or a heavy-duty freezer bag. They can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months, ready for future baking! Baked cookies can also be frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
If you’ve frozen your cookie dough balls, you have a couple of options for baking. For best results, thaw them in the refrigerator overnight. Once thawed, bake them as directed in the recipe, but keep in mind you might need an additional 1-2 minutes of baking time since they started colder. Alternatively, you can thaw the dough balls in the fridge for about 2 hours before baking as instructed, which will also likely require a slight increase in baking time.
More Delicious Cookie Recipes to Explore
Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Best Chewy Snickerdoodle Cookies
Eggnog Cookies (cut out)
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Halloween Monster Eye Cookies Recipe
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Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup Creamy peanut butter
- 3/4 cup Dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup Granulated sugar
- 2 large Eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon Baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons Cornstarch
- 1 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
- 1 cup Old-fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup Ghoul’s Mix M&M’s candies plus extra for the tops
- 1/2 cup Mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup Butterscotch chips
- 1/4 cup Candy eyeballs or more as desired
Instructions
- In a large bowl cream together the butter and peanut butter until smooth.1/2 cup Unsalted butter, 1/2 cup Creamy peanut butter
- Add the brown sugar & granulated sugar, creaming together until fluffy.3/4 cup Dark brown sugar, 1/4 cup Granulated sugar
- Add in the eggs and vanilla, beating well.2 large Eggs, 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
- In a separate bowl, whisk the baking soda, salt, cornstarch, and flour, until combined.1 teaspoon Baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt, 1 1/2 cups All-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons Cornstarch
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
- Stir in the oats, M&M’s, chocolate chips, and butterscotch until just combined.1 cup Old-fashioned oats, 1/2 cup Ghoul’s Mix M&M’s candies, 1/2 cup Mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1/2 cup Butterscotch chips
- Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours, up to overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone liners.
- Drop heaping 1/4 cup-sized balls of dough onto the baking sheets, about 2-3″ apart. (Roll into balls for best results.)
- Press a few extra M&M’s on the top of the cookies. (this is not absolutely necessary)
- Bake for approximately 12-14 minutes. Cookies may appear slightly undone in the center; this is normal and they’ll continue to set as they cool. Press the candy eyes lightly on each cookie while it is still hot.1/4 cup Candy eyeballs
- Cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes then transfer to racks.
Notes
Freezing: Freeze formed cookie dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet for at least 1 hour or until hard. Place in a freezer-safe bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
To Bake From Frozen: Thaw them in the refrigerator overnight and bake as directed. You might need an additional 1-2 minutes of baking time.
You can also thaw in the fridge for about 2 hours and then bake as instructed.
Originally Published 10/02/2022