Halloween Party Food Recipes

Halloween party food recipes are essential for creating a spooktacular celebration that will delight your guests. Whether you're planning a spooky gathering for adults or a fun-filled fest for kids, these deliciously themed treats will set the perfect mood for your Halloween bash.

From tasty treats to delicious desserts, this article will guide you through a variety of easy-to-make recipes that are sure to impress. Read on to discover how to transform ordinary ingredients into extraordinary Halloween-themed dishes that will have your guests coming back for more.

Halloween Party Food Recipes for All Ages

Adapted from Vintage Recipes

SPOOKtacular Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups chocolate wafer crumbs
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

Filling Ingredients:

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Melted chocolate
Piping icing in various colors (optional)
Chocolate spider candies (optional)

Instructions:

To make this delicious Halloween party food recipe, combine crushed wafer crumbs and butter. Press crumb mixture into bottom of and sides of your greased spring-form pan to form your cheesecake crust.

In a large mixing bowl beat cream cheese and sugars until creamy smooth. Add in the eggs and beat on low speed. Whisk in the pumpkin, cornstarch, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice (a.k.a. your secret ingredient).

Pour mixture into crust and bake at 350°F for 1 hour. Cool for 10 minutes or so before doing anything else to the cheesecake, but don't turn off the oven just yet if you choose to add the optional topping.

Otherwise, carefully run a butter knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the crust to make release easier later on. Allow cheesecake to cool to room temperature and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, remove the spring-form sides, pipe on spider web decorations and for added fun, place a candy spider in each little web. Space them so that each slice has a spider.

Pipe small spiders from brown or black icing if candy spiders are unavailable; tiny strips of black licorice can be cut and used for the legs.

Optional Vanilla Topping

2 cups sour cream
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Mix up the topping ingredients and spread vanilla topping over top of the filling. Return cheesecake to oven for 6 minutes to melt. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, then carefully run a butter knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the crust to make release easier later on. Allow to cool to room temperature and refrigerate overnight before decorating.

Additional Pumpkin Cheesecakes

Choose a Basic Pumpkin Cheesecake with a chocolate crumb crust, or an easy Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake with a gingersnap crust. Either one can be decorated with a piped spider web for Halloween.

Halloween Party Parfait

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup fat-free milk
1 (8 ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese, cubed
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges
1 (20 ounce) can unsweetened crushed pineapple, undrained
1 (8 ounce) container reduced-fat whipped topping, thawed
1/2 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs, divided

To make this Halloween party food recipe, combine gelatin and orange juice and let stand for 5 minutes. Heat milk until boiling and add to gelatin.

Transfer mixture to blender and blend until well blended. Add cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, orange peel, and blend again.

Drain oranges, reserving the juice in a small dish. Add pineapple and reserved orange juice to gelatin mixture and blend again. Fold in the whipped topping.

Divide half the oranges into 8 dessert dishes. Layer with half the gelatin mix and half the cracker crumbs. Repeat gelatin, crumbs, and top with mandarin oranges.

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Before serving, sprinkle with more crumbs and maybe a large dollop of whipped cream topping and a Halloween candy on top.

Tasty Halloween Party Mix Recipe

This easy recipe for party mix is also great for serving at fall football parties and Thanksgiving Day celebrations.

The best part about this traditional Halloween party dessert recipe is that you can make it in a crock pot, leaving the oven free for making other dishes.

4 cups Wheat Chex® or Shreddies® cereal
4 cups Cheerios® cereal
3 cups pretzel sticks
1 (12 ounce) can salted peanuts
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt

Set the crock pot to low heat. Mix up the cereals, pretzels, and peanuts, and put in the crock pot. Combine butter, parmesan cheese, and salts; drizzle over the dry mixture and toss for coating.

Put the lid on the crock pot and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours. Stir at least once each hour to avoid burning the mix and to ensure it all cooks evenly.

Crunchy Broomstick Appetizer Dip

1/4 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
2 teaspoons tarragon vinegar
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/8 teaspoon thyme
2 teaspoons chili sauce
1 celery stick, chopped

To make this Halloween party food recipe, simply combine all ingredients and chill for at least one hour before serving. This dip is perfect in the center of your veggie tray.

To make the serving table appear extra festive for Halloween night, scoop the dip into a small hollowed-out mini pumpkin or squash for serving.

Besides veggies, use Halloween-shaped cookie cutters to cut mini finger sandwiches and use the dip as a spread on those. Delicious.

Rice Krispies® Halloween Squares

1/4 cup butter
3 cups (10 ounces) miniature marshmallows
1/2 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
5 to 6 cups Rice Krispies®, uncrushed
A few drops orange food coloring (or combination of red and yellow)

Make NO BAKE marshmallow treats the regular way. Melt butter in 3-quart saucepan, add marshmallows and cook on low heat while stirring constantly until blended.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla flavoring and food coloring, then add Rice Krispies® and stir well until coated. Lightly press mixture into buttered 9 x 13 inch pan and cut into squares when cool.

Add a candy corn or one of your favorite chewable Halloween candies to the top of each square to decorate. Yields about two dozen 2-inch squares.

Marshmallow Haystacks

Replace the rice cereal with corn flake cereal and omit the orange food coloring. Follow the instructions combining the melted marshmallow and butter mixture with the cereal.

When cool enough to touch, mold the cereal mixture into the shape of haystacks and place on a buttered cookie sheet to cool thoroughly.

Add a candy corn or an orange-colored pumpkin candy to the top of each haystack to decorate.

Vintage Halloween Spook Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1-3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg white
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream the butter, add sugar gradually and add the one egg well beaten; then add flour mixed and sifted with baking powder. Chill, toss one-half mixture at a time on a floured board, and roll dough 1/8th inch thick.

Cut with a doughnut cutter. Brush over with white of egg, and sprinkle with sugar mixed with cinnamon. Place on buttered cookie sheet, and bake 8 minutes in a slow oven.

Yummy Halloween Smoothie

2 cups orange juice
2 cups milk
2 pints orange sherbet
4 ripe bananas
2 cups whipped cream (or a favorite whipped topping)
Miniature chocolate chips

This easy Halloween party food recipe blends orange juice, milk, sherbert and bananas together until very smooth. Pour into fancy glasses.

Add a ghost-like dollop of whipped cream on top of each drink just before serving, and use chocolate chips for the eyes.

How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds

Roast your fresh pumpkin seeds in the oven for an old fashioned treat. Pumpkin seeds that have been salted and roasted to perfection are absolutely delicious. Here's how to make them:

First, rinse the pumpkin seeds under cold running water and try to remove all the pulp and pulpy strings. Place the wet seeds on a tea towel (or paper towels) and pat to remove excess water.

Oil a baking sheet with your favorite cooking oil and spread the seeds evenly on the sheet. Sprinkle seeds with salt to taste; you might find yourself using a little more salt than usual.

Bake seeds at 325°F until toasted for 15 minutes. Stir and flip the seeds over so they'll bake on both sides. Bake until toasted for another 15 minutes.

Let the seeds cool off completely before eating. Almost any popcorn seasoning can be used for flavoring with good results. Or, if you prefer your seeds with a saltier flavor, you can soak your pumpkin seeds overnight in salty water. It won't make a huge difference in the taste, but some people prefer doing it that way.

Leftover roasted pumpkin seeds can be stored in an airtight container for serving later.

Candy Corn Ice Cream Sundae

This simple Halloween party food recipe makes a delicious Halloween sundae for your guests.

For each cupful of partially thawed vanilla ice cream, mix in one tablespoon of candy corn (coarsely chopped) and one tablespoon of dry roasted peanuts or cashews (coarsely chopped). Scoop into individual ice cream bowls and freeze until firm.

When ready to serve, drizzle caramel ice cream topping over the ice cream mixture, add a dollop of whipped cream, and some additional candy corn and chopped nuts sprinkled over the top.

Marshmallow or chocolate ice cream toppings can be used instead of caramel, if preferred.

About the Halloween Party Food Recipes

Just imagine your guest's reaction to the tasty Broomstick Appetizer Dip served in its decorative pumpkin shell, the colorful orange Halloween Party Parfait, or the luscious Pumpkin Cheesecake that's to die for.

Bookmark this page and keep these Halloween party food recipes handy. They're perfect for Halloween or any fall get-together, including Thanksgiving. But, be sure to make lots so you won't run out. Your guests are sure to ask for seconds!