Every holiday feels like a new opportunity to gather with friends and family to celebrate with a themed party. Now that we are in October, we are fast approaching the spookiest of all holidays, aka Halloween. There are all sorts of sweets, cocktails, meals, desserts, and games that can be found online and brought to your gathering in order to entertain and feed guests. Today, we are going to provide some insight into a variety of Halloween appetizers that you can be serving to friends and family on October 31st this year. And of course, it must be sweet and delicious, because Halloween is all about embracing your sugary sweet tooth.
5 Gourmet Halloween Appetizers:
1. Peanut Butter Monster Munch Halloween Party Mix
Everyone loves a good trail mix to snack on before enjoying the main meal. Take a look at this yummy monster munch which includes a few simple ingredients that can be thrown together easily. A perfect combo of sweet and salty! Recipe courtesy of Wholefully.
Ingredients:
- 12 cups air-popped popcorn
- 3 cups mini-twist pretzels
- 1 cup roasted, salted peanuts
- 1 cup of candy corn
- 1 cup Reese’s Pieces
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- Orange candy melts and sprinkles (optional), for garnish
Instructions:
Step 1: Mix the popcorn, pretzels, peanuts, candy corn, and Reese’s Pieces in a very large bowl and spread out onto two large rimmed baking pans.
Step 2: Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the honey and sugar and stir until smooth. Stop stirring, allow the mixture to come to a boil, and cook for about 5 minutes, tilting the pan occasionally to make sure there are no signs of burning. The mixture should smell caramelized and be a bit darkened in color. Remove from the heat and carefully stir in the peanut butter, salt, and heavy cream.
Step 3: Quickly drizzle the peanut butter caramel over the party mix on the sheet pans, then toss to coast the two large spoons. Drizzle with melted orange candy melts and sprinkle with sprinkles, if using. Let the party mix cool on the sheet pans, then transfer to bowls for serving, breaking up any large pieces if needed.
2. Ghost S’mores Dip
A s’mores dip is always a fan favorite sweet, because who doesn’t love chocolate, marshmallow, and graham crackers?! Add a Halloween touch to this s’mores dip recipe by Delish in order to make the marshmallows look like ghosts. This recipe is great when you’re short on time and can be complete in only five minutes.
Ingredients:
- 4 packages of ghost Peeps
- 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¼ cup of heavy cream, warmed
- Graham crackers, for serving
- Mini chocolate chips
Instructions:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. At the bottom of a square baking dish, spread out chocolate chips and pour cream on top. Cover completely with a single layer of ghost Peeps. Place mini chocolate chips over the eyes and mouth. (The already-drawn faces will fade in the oven).
Step 2: Bake until the chocolate has melted and the ghosts are golden, 8 to 10 minutes.
Step 3: Serve warm with graham crackers for dipping.
3. Dirt Cups
Another classic Halloween recipe that often gets the young kids laughing at the thought that they are eating cups of dirt. This recipe is also a COVID-19 friendly appetizer that you can hand out individually to all guests. There are many creative twists you could add to this appetizer, but the recipe below is courtesy of Homemade Food Junkie.
Ingredients:
- One 6 oz. chocolate instant pudding (Jello brand is great)
- 6 to 12 gummy worms
- 6 chocolate cookies (Oreos specifically work great)
Instructions:
Step 1: In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the pudding and milk together
Step 2: Pour evenly into the plastic cups, leaving ½ headroom for the crushed cookies and worms.
Step 3: Crush the cookies into crumbles (you can use your food processor, rolling pin, or large wooden spoon for this).
Step 4: Spread the cookie crumbling over the pudding.
Step 5: Set one gummy worm (or more if you prefer) into the pudding and let it drape over your cup for effect.
Note from the recipe: These cups can be made ahead but the cookies will absorb the moisture of the pudding and go somewhat soft. To keep your cookies crunchy, crush the cookies ahead and put them in an airtight bag. At serving, pour the crumbles over the pudding and add the worms. Serve!
4. Skeleton Veggie Tray
If you do feel the need to bring some veggies to the Halloween party, this veggie tray is an easy and festive way to enjoy veggies with a Halloween twist. Recipe courtesy of Cooking with Janica.
Ingredients:
- ½ Green Pepper
- ½ Red Pepper
- ½ Orange Pepper
- ½ Yellow Pepper
- 3 stalks of celery, cut up into pieces
- 1 Cucumber, sliced
- 1 8 oz package of White Mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cups of Cauliflower
- 2 cups of Broccoli
- 4 Cherry Tomatoes
- Veggie Dip
- Olives
- Romaine Lettuce Leaves
Instructions:
Step 1: Place the container of veggie dip at the top of your dish/platter. Insert a few pieces of Romaine Lettuce Leaves as hair and olives as the eyes and nose.
Step 2: Place the slices of cucumbers in rows on top of each other as the spine.
Step 3: For the ribs, cut all four colors of the peppers in slices from top to bottom and stack on top of one another on either side of the cucumber spine.
Step 4: Place the sliced mushrooms under the ribs as the pelvis.
Step 5: Layout the celery as shoulders and arms, connecting both with a cherry tomato as the joint.
Step 6: Place down the broccoli and cauliflower to use as hands.
5. Buffalo Meatball Pumpkins
For an appetizer with a little more substance, try out these yummy meatballs. They have a spicy buffalo kick to them and are cute like little pumpkins. Pull out your slow cooker and try out this recipe by The Gunny Sack.
Ingredients:
- 2 ½ pounds Daily Chef - Casa di Bertacchi meatballs, about 75
- 38 pretzel rods, or other pretzel sticks
- 1 bunch of fresh parsley, or cilantro
Buffalo Sauce:
- ⅓ cup butter
- ½ cup buffalo sauce
- ¼ cup pumpkin puree
- 1 tbsp ranch dressing
Instructions:
Step 1: Put the meatballs into the slow cooker, cover, and heat on high for 3-3 ½ hours
Step 2: Pour the buffalo sauce (recipe below) over the meatballs and stir to coat.
Step 3: To make the buffalo meatballs look like pumpkins, put them on a tray.
Step 4: Break the ends off of the pretzel rods and insert them into the meatballs. Cut a small hole in the top of each meatball before inserting the pretzel, if necessary.
Step 5: Finish them off with a green parsley leaf.
Buffalo Sauce Instructions:
Step 1: Belt the butter and then stir in the buffalo sauce, pumpkin puree, and ranch dressing
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