These easy little Halloween cookies are fun to make with the kids!
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❤️ Why you'll love it
- Easy, no-bake recipe uses simple ingredients
- Great way to get kids of all ages involved in the kitchen
- Festive lunch-box treats and perfect Halloween party food
Made with peanut butter cookies, white candy melts, and candy eyes, Nutter butter ghosts are an easy Halloween dessert that excites the whole family!
Serve these little ghosts at your next spooky party, and you will definitely earn the title of "ghostess" with the mostest.
Don't stop with Halloween. Check out these oh-so-cute Nutter Butter Easter chicks!
🧾 Ingredients
This is an overview of the ingredients. You'll find the full measurements and instructions in the green recipe card (printable) at the bottom of the page.
🔪 Instructions
This is an overview of the instructions. Full instructions are in the green recipe card at the bottom of the page.
- Melt the candy melts in the microwave or over a double boiler.
- Dip cookies in melted chocolate.
- Add candy eyes or mini chocolate chips.
- Let the nutter butter ghosts set on parchment paper or wax paper.
🥫 Storage
Place the nutter butter ghost cookies in an airtight container until you're ready to serve them. I like to put them in a huge mason jar for easy snacking—and it serves as a festive decoration! Or, seal them in little sandwich baggies and give 'em out as party favors or to trick-or-treaters!
Properly stored, these easy Halloween treats will actually last you a few weeks! However, don't refrigerate the dipped cookies. Otherwise, they can get soft and the candy eyes will bleed—and not in a good, Halloween-y way, either!
If your kitchen tends to run warm, you can separate layers of the nutter butter ghosts with some parchment paper to prevent any sticking.
📖 Variations
- Peanut allergy? Swap out the nutter butters for another oblong cookie, like E.L.Fudge, Vienna Fingers, or Milano cookies.
- You can use homemade cookies in place of store-bought nutter butters. Heartier, crunchy varieties work best, like shortbread.
- Instead of white chocolate candy melts, you can use white chocolate chips thinned with a little bit of coconut oil.
- Alternatively, dip the nutter butter cookies in melted almond bark.
- You can use a small tube of black gel frosting or black sprinkles to make the ghost's eyes or spooky little ghost mouths.
- Alternate between using mini chips and regular chocolate chips to give each adorable ghost cookie some unique character. We liked the look of the candy eyes the best, however.
- Excess chocolate? Use it up this way. First, coat the entire cookie with the candy melts and let it set. Then, drizzle the white candy coating over the coated cookie and add eyes. Boo! Just like that, you have some mummy cookies to pair with your cute nutter butter ghosts. So much fun!
💭 Things to know
Expert Tip: Don't overheat your candy melts! Chocolate tends to seize up if it gets too hot (sometimes beyond repair) so follow the package directions and watch it carefully.
- Stirring your chocolate with a spatula helps to prevent it from overheating. Make sure to really get to the bottom of the bowl.
- When microwaving the candy melts, follow the package instructions, or stir about every thirty seconds to be safe.
- It's a great idea to line cookie sheets or a baking sheet with waxed paper so that the edges of the pan prevent the nutter butter ghosts from sliding off if the pan is bumped. With kids helping out, it's better to err on the safe side than to be sorry!
- Don't place the cookies on a cooling rack to catch the excess drips, otherwise, the back of the cookie will dry with a grid imprinted on it! A sheet of parchment paper smooths out the backside of the cookie.
- It's okay to let the white chocolate drip a little—it gives the fun cookies a more ghost-like appearance!
- If your candy melts are too thick for dipping, you can use a spoon to spread the chocolate over the entire top and sides of each cookie.
- Make sure to add the eyes quickly, before the chocolate sets! Otherwise, they won't stick.
👩🍳 FAQs
These fun treats are so simple a skeleton could make them—and skeletons don't even have brains! The trickiest part is melting the candy melts, but even that is as simple as pressing a few buttons on the microwave and stirring a couple of times!
You can buy different flavored candy melts, but usually, the white melts are flavored like white chocolate. They're sweet and simple. Splurge a little on a better brand, like Ghirardelli, for optimal taste.
They're delicious! Nutter butter cookies are crunchy and have a smooth, peanut butter filling. The white chocolate candy melt topping is the perfect complement!
Set up the doubler boiler over low heat with a little simmering water in the bottom pan. The water shouldn't touch the top bowl. Pour the candy melts into the dry bowl and use a spatula to stir them until melted and smooth. It'll take a few minutes.
Water and chocolate don't mix well. Sometimes, a bit of moisture in your bowl or on your spatula can cause the chocolate to seize up. Other times, it happens because the chocolate melts were overheated. Either way, there isn't a great fix. It's best to start over.
📚 Related recipes
- Ghosts and mummys and Frankenstein's monster—oh my! These Halloween-Dipped Rice Krispy Treats are fun, easy to make, and always a favorite at class parties!
- A Halloween Cheese Ball is the perfect savory element for an all-ages Halloween party. Flavored with ranch, this one's gobbled up FAST.
- Spicy, chocolatey, and very on-theme, these spooky Black Velvet Cupcakes have a rich, not-at-all-scary surprise orange filling—yum!
🍽️ Serve with...
- Cornflake Chicken Tenders
- Jalapeno Cream Cheese Dip
- Dragon's Blood Cocktail (adults deserve a treat, too...)
📞 The last word
I love quick and easy projects and it just doesn't get better than these adorable ghost cookies!
They'd be so cute on a Halloween party table with this pumpkin cream cheese dip and a few gingersnaps and Nilla wafers. They're also the perfect garnish to spooky Halloween dirt cups!
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nutter Butter Ghosts for Halloween
Print Pin Recipe SaveEquipment Needed
Ingredients
- 12 Nutter Butter cookies, the peanut shaped ones
- 10 ounces white chocolate melts
- 24 candy eyes, or chocolate chips
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Instructions
- Melt the white chocolate candy melts in the microwave on 50% powder, stirring every 30 seconds OR according to instructions on package.
- Spoon some of the melted white chocolate over the Nutter Butter cookie and let it drip down, covering the top half completely.
- Add 2 of the candy eyes while the white chocolate is still wet.
- Let set in a cool, dry place. Warning! If you put these in the refrigerator the black in the eyes will get smeary. I found this out the hard way.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature until ready to serve.
Notes
- Don't overheat your candy melts! Chocolate tends to seize up if it gets too hot (sometimes beyond repair) so follow the package directions and watch it carefully.
- Stirring your chocolate with a spatula helps to prevent it from overheating. Make sure to really get to the bottom of the bowl.
- When microwaving the candy melts, follow the package instructions, or stir about every thirty seconds to be safe.
- It's a great idea to line cookie sheets or a baking sheet with waxed paper so that the edges of the pan prevent the nutter butter ghosts from sliding off if the pan is bumped. With kids helping out, it's better to err on the safe side than to be sorry!
- Don't place the cookies on a cooling rack to catch the excess drips, otherwise, the back of the cookie will dry with a grid imprinted on it! A sheet of parchment paper smooths out the backside of the cookie.
- It's okay to let the white chocolate drip a little—it gives the fun cookies a more ghost-like appearance!
- If your candy melts are too thick for dipping, you can use a spoon to spread the chocolate over the entire top and sides of each cookie.
- Make sure to add the eyes quickly, before the chocolate sets! Otherwise, they won't stick.
Cheryl Savage
We are having a storytelling festival at StandingStone state Park this Saturday. I’m going to fix these to sale. Since Halloween is looming on the horizon, I think the kids will love it and it is sooo easy.
Sharon
Where did you get candy eyes?
Marye
You can get them at most grocery stores in the baking aisle, Hobby Lobby, or Amazon (affiliate link) https://amzn.to/3Ds4HwZ