Recipes for Halloween: sweet and savoury ideas, suitable not only for children

Halloween is approaching and there are many sweet and savoury horror-themed recipes to be made for the occasion. Whether you are planning a Halloween party for children or a buffet with dinner for adults, it does not matter, the mission remains one: to horrify your guests with spooky appetizers – sausage mummies and witch’s fingers for example – and main courses, and a lot of tasty dishes. Here you can find fast and easy recipes for a perfect menu for the witches’ night. Choose from our suggestions based on your tastes and your needs for guaranteed success.

Savoury recipes for Halloween

Looking for Halloween savoury recipe ideas? During the days leading up to October 31, there are many occasions in which to get in the kitchen to prepare something that is in tune with the terrifying occasion. The list of ideas is long, starting with the appetizers, which are those that allow more than the main courses and pasta dishes, probably, to indulge themselves with the decorations. Take for example the witch fingers (yes, as well as sweets they can be made in a savoury version). Just arrange them on a plate and drop a few drops of ketchup here and there to simulate blood.

And what about pizza, the most famous leavened dough disc in the world, can be stuffed in a Halloween way. Like? You could make an anomalous Margherita Pizza by putting slices of cheese on it and covering them with half a black olive (it will look like many eyes). Or you could cut out some cheese with a ghost-shaped mould and spread a lot of it on the dough stretched and covered with tomato sauce, perhaps interspersed with some bats.

Then there are some dishes that make our work much easier thanks to their colour alone: ​​guacamole and pea and mint soup are just an example. You could serve the latter inside a carved pumpkin, or place the former at the mouth of a small carved pumpkin in order to reproduce vomit (yes, quite disgusting, but if this is the goal, better play “dirty” ).

Recipes for Halloween with puff pastry

And remaining on the finger food theme, among the Halloween recipes with puff pastry mummies with sausages stand out: just cut the dough into long strips and use them to wrap the sausages to simulate real bandages. But if that one does not please you, replace them with elongated meatballs, they are certainly healthier. The puff pastry is a great resource: you can make us some pumpkin puffs, small coffins made of millefeuille, little snakes or even breadsticks to be equipped with eyes and mouth. And still stuffed swivels, mummy strudel and much, much more.

Recipes for Halloween, scary pasta and soup dishes

With a little creativity, the common comfort foods that we usually bring to the table can turn into spooky foods that we would never want to taste. Do you know the dear old pumpkin soup, or a carrot and ginger soup, the ideal companion for autumn dinners? Well, once poured into the dish, you could decorate it with a cobweb (pour some cream cheese into a pastry bag and use it to draw concentric centres on it to then pull, from the centre outwards, with a toothpick) or you could recreate it on top Jack o’ Lantern‘s face simply by cutting out a slice of cheese and making triangles for the eyes and nose and a strip for the mouth from it. The same thing goes for the tomato soup, on which you can arrange the mozzarella balls covered with a green olive slice.

Among the pasta Halloween dishes, we cannot forget the risotto: it can be decorated with spiders obtained by carving black olives or making a disturbing black version using black rice. If advanced from the previous day, it can be modelled by obtaining small pumpkins to be completed with black olives specially cut out for the eyes and mouth (like the ones you see in the picture, so to speak). Alternatively, even the rice arancini can be decorated as desired: their round shape lends itself to giving life to more or less reassuring faces.

Savory recipes for Halloween, monstrous main courses

The monstrous savoury recipes for Halloween allow us to build an ad hoc menu to spend the holiday at home without giving up a creative dinner. As for main courses, for example, even the common savoury pies can be transformed: just cover them with a layer of puff pastry and, before putting them in the oven, cut out eyes and mouth over them. Once out of the oven it will be like bringing a threatening face to the table. Returning to the meatballs, you could give life to mice: make them slightly elongated and insert on the sides of the carrot slices (they will be the ears) and in correspondence of the muzzle, some black peppercorns to create eyes and nose. Finally, a toothpick with a twisted tip will be the tail.

Recipes for Halloween for children

When it comes to Halloween we cannot leave out the recipes for children: they are the ones that allow us the most to use our creativity in the kitchen. In reality, it doesn’t take long to prepare cheerfully spooky dishes for the little ones at home. Sometimes, even a simple slice of toasted bread, carefully cut, can become a funny face to be placed on a plate and completed with slices of carrots cut out in the shape of a pumpkin. Have you ever thought, for example, that the reassuring mashed potatoes can give life to cute little ghosts? Just insert it in a pastry bag with a smooth nozzle and create mounds on a plate, then complete them with two peas (they will be their eyes).

By filling soft hamburger buns you can indulge yourself by making little monsters: there are many photos on the web from which to take inspiration. Here we suggest you skewer two olives with toothpicks and place them on the surface of the hamburger, or to cut out a slice of cheese in a zig-zag shape and make it come out of the sandwich to reproduce a not very reassuring set of teeth. But not only the savoury recipes to give us satisfaction, there are, of course, also the desserts.

Sweet Halloween recipes (easy)

The category of easy Halloween desserts contains a series of spectacular desserts. If American desserts are the ones we get the most inspiration from – like cupcakes, for example – the classic and timeless pumpkin pie never goes out of style. Even candies are sweets to be made at home in a few moves, and you need to have them at home: children are thrilled by the idea of saying “treats or tricks?” While muffins are among the delicacies that you can improvise practically at any time, they are ready in just over half an hour.

Cookie recipes for Halloween

Halloween sweets are spectacular: it is incredible how you can make surprisingly decorated Halloween cookies just from shortcrust pastry (and from shortcrust pastry with egg whites, which is lighter and softer). With or without moulds, you can get pumpkins, ghosts, skulls, bats, skeletons and much more.
You do not need moulds, however, to make the witch’s fingers: just shape the shortcrust pastry into a roll, cut it to the right height and complete with almond and some cuts on the surface. Macaroons, on the other hand, can become an army of small mummies. Even cookies can be decorated with little eyes for a different snack than usual. But the food needs are many, and in order not to leave the intolerant unhappy, you can make shortcrust pastry without eggs to use as a base.

Easy desserts, recipes for Halloween

Among the easy Halloween sweet recipes, meringues have always occupied a place of honour. Once cooked just trace the eyes with melted chocolate, they do not need anything else. The pancakes, decorated with carved fruit, can take the form of fearsome monsters; the brownies, appropriately cut into bricks, can become chocolate coffins or the surface on which to distribute tombstones for a terrifying cemetery. The chocolate mousse, again, can be completed with a biscuit on which to write RIP and a ghost of meringue; the Red Velvet cake can be covered with whipped cream and sprinkled with black cherry syrup and some spider. And what about marzipan? In addition to being a filling for chocolates, it can be modelled as desired, creating scary subjects, such as Frankenstein.

The chocolate spread, as well as for writing, can be used to recreate cobwebs on crepes or Halloween cakes. And speaking of the latter, the inevitable presence of the holiday at the end of October remains the pumpkin pie, which does not need large decorations to be in theme with the party. Instead, you can use carrot cake, a delicious and rich alternative from American cuisine.