“Hocus Pocus” Halloween Cookies
These magical chocolate Halloween Cookies are filled with a delicious green “witches brew” frosting!! An awesome Halloween recipe inspired by one of our favorite spooky movies: Hocus Pocus!
“Hocus Pocus” Halloween Cookies
I was flipping through the channels a couple weeks ago when I noticed that Hocus Pocus was on. You know those movies that when you find them on TV you can’t change the channel? Even if you’ve seen it 1000 times? Even if you own the DVD and could watch it without commercials? Well this is one of those movies!
I couldn’t believe the coincidence when a few days later, one of my recipe contributors said she was making Hocus Pocus cookies! And then when I saw the Hocus Pocus inspired Halloween cookies I was even more excited…y’all they are AWESOME!!
These are one of our favorite new cookies to make for Halloween! They’re super festive, in bright Halloween inspired colors.
Our Halloween sugar cookies are amped up with cocoa for chocolate flavor and filled with M&Ms – more chocolate is always a good thing, am I right?? Plus there is an sweet surprise inside these crazy cool Halloween cookies – witches brew ooze!!
Related: Pair our Halloween cookies with this sparkling Maleficent cocktail or our Witches Brew Drink! (grown-ups only!)
Halloween Cookies Ingredients
This is a quick list of shop-able ad links (whenever possible) to help you find the products used to make our Hocus Pocus Cookies. (Disclosure policy here)
- 1 cup sweet cream unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 container of white frosting
- 3-5 drops of neon green gel food coloring
- M&M Candies – green, orange, and purple
Kitchen Supplies Used
- Non-slip mixing bowls
- Electric mixer
- Cookie sheet
- Parchment paper or non-stick silicone baking mat
- Flavor injector (this is often used to inject marinade into meat, but we used it to inject frosting into cookies…genius, right?!)
Halloween Cookies (filled with Witches Brew Frosting)
Note: A full printable copy of our Halloween cookie recipe is available at the bottom of the post, below photo step-by-step directions.
First, make the cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or non-stick silicone baking mat.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.
- In a different mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter and both types of sugar together until fluffy. Add in the eggs and vanilla and continue mixing.
- Slowly begin to add the dry ingredients into wet ingredients until well combined. Stir in about half of your M&Ms into the dough.
- Use your hands or a medium cookie scoop to form dough into balls. Press the remaining M&Ms into the tops of your cookies.
- Bake at 350° for 9-11 minutes. Remove Halloween cookies of the oven and allow to cool slightly on the cookie sheet. Then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Next, add the frosting!
- Scoop the frosting into a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 10-15 seconds to soften. Stir in a few drops of green food coloring, until you have a smooth bright green frosting.
- Now the fun part! Grab your Flavor injector and place the needle into the bowl of frosting. Pull the knob up on the injector to suck up frosting.
- Poke the side of one of the cookies and inject frosting into the cookie – just until the top of the cookie cracks and you can see frosting peeking through.
In case you’re wondering, here’s what a flavor injector looks like:
It’s often used to inject marinade into meat, but we used it to inject frosting into cookies! Yea!!
More Halloween Party Treat Ideas
- Jack Skellington Pull-Apart Cupcakes
- Spooky Slime Cookies
- Peanut Butter Candy Corn Treats
- Creamsicle Flavored Mini Halloween Cupcakes
- Spiderweb Cookies
- Frankenstein Halloween Cake Pops
- Halloween Graveyard Cake
- Pumpkin Pretzels
- Hot Dog Mummies
- Halloween Blondies
- Slime Monster Cupcakes
- Blood Spatter Cookies
Grab a free printable copy of our Halloween Cookie Recipe:
If you like this recipe, please rate it! We’d also love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
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Slime Filled Halloween Cookies
Equipment
- 1 medium bowl
- 1 small bowl
- electric mixer and mixing bowl
- Cookie sheet
- Parchment paper
- 1 flavor injector
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Sweet Cream Unsalted Butter
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 2/3 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
- 2 Eggs large
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 2 1/4 Cup Flour
- 2/3 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 16 oz White Frosting 16 oz is typically one container
- 5 drops Neon Green Gel Food Coloring
- M&M Candies orange, green, and purple
Instructions
To Make the Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or non-stick silicone baking mat.
- Separate green, orange, and purple M&M’s into a small bowl.
- Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl.
- In a separate mixing bowl, use electric mixer to cream the butter and both sugars together.
- Add in the eggs and vanilla, continue mixing.
- Slowly pour dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients, mixing as you go until well combined.
- Add about half of your M&M’s to the dough, stirring into batter.
- Form dough into balls, about 2" in size.
- Press the rest of your M&M’s into each round cookie dough ball.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly on the cookie sheet. Then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.
To Make the Frosting
- Scoop the frosting into a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 15 seconds to soften.
- Stir in a few drops of green gel food coloring until frosting is bright green.
- Place the needle of the flavor injector into the bowl of frosting and pull the knob up on the injector to fill it with frosting.
- Poke the side of a cookie and inject frosting into the cookie, just until the top of the cookie cracks.
- Repeat until all cookies are filled with frosting.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Pin our Hocus Pocus Cookies on Pinterest:
More of our favorite spooky Halloween treats:
Jack Skellington Pull Apart Cupcakes
- “Mistletoe Margaritas” Christmas Margarita Recipe - December 1, 2024
- 25 Easy Christmas Crafts for Kids of All Ages - December 1, 2024
- Candy Cane Cookies - November 26, 2024
We will definitely be trying this recipe out–I have two cookie monster!
I followed the recipe to a t. I am a seasoned baker. These came out flat. I don’t think that the flavor injector will plump them up or even work. I used all the precise measurements and ingredients listed. Hmmm I was so excited I made two trips to find the correct m&ms and made two separate batches. Both turned out the same.
Hi Melissa — were the flour and baking soda brand new? Sometimes if they’ve been opened for a while, those ingredients can negatively affect the consistency of baked goods.
Yes! I bake very frequently and have recently opened new packages.
Baking powder is the missing ingredient to this recipe
The reason they came out flat is because Stacy omitted the box of instant chocolate pudding in the recipe.
Add one box of instant chocolate pudding to this recipe and they’ll come out perfect.
There’s not instant pudding in the original recipe, so no omission 😉 But I’m curious how that would turn out…I’ve used pudding mix in other cookie recipes like this one: https://thesoccermomblog.com/chocolate-pudding-mix-cookies/
Wow!! These turned out amazinngggg!! And can I just say….I’m the furthest thing from a baker. Made with my daughter and niece. This will be a tradition. Thank you for sharing!!
I was wondering what to use as substitutes for the M&M’s for those allergic to chocolate
Hi Jenn, I hesitate to recommend substitutions for allergies that I’m not familiar with. If needed, you may be able to omit the M&Ms, but keep in mind that these cookies themselves are chocolate.
What brand of flavor injector did you use? I don’t own one, & the Web keeps giving me results for meat injectors. Not sure if that is the same thing?
Meat injectors will work! Just as long as they are clean 😉
Looks amazing. I want to test drive them before Halloween.
2 things, why won’t the recipes print? What size of bag is the M&M’s or how many?
Do you have a pop-up blocker? That could prevent the printer dialogue from opening in a new window. For the M&Ms, there’s not an exact number – you can use as many as you like. A cup is a good starting point.
Where did you find your green, orange, and purple m&m’s? I found some on Amazon but they were pretty spendy.
Sam’s Club had the Halloween M&Ms last time we were there – they are called “Ghoul’s Mix” — maybe Walmart would have them as well?
I just picked some up at Target last night!
For the ooze, how long do you let them cool and how do you aim to have it go out the top but still fill?
I would let the cookies cool to room temp before adding the frosting. After that, I would just eye-ball it! Add frosting until it just starts to act like the cookies are full.
What size scoop did you use to make the dough balls?
We used a medium cookie scoop which is between 1 1/2 to 2 Tablespoons
I just made the Slime filled cookies, did the recipe exact and baking time 11 min. but the dint seem done enough. I shaped them into balls, did not flatten them out however they baked flat so I don’t know what I did wrong,
They taste yummy!! However I don’t think I can inject the slime into them
We all of the ingredients new? Sometimes when things like baking soda are old (or if you can’t remember when you bought them), they can affect the texture of baked goods.
Hello. Have you tried freezing the dough balls for later use?
I haven’t tried this yet, but I imagine that you could.
What kind of food gel did you use and where to get?
It really can be any brand – they have a variety of gel food coloring on Amazon and you can often find it at craft stores like Michael’s or Hobby Lobby.
I didn’t see an answer for Melissa’s flat cookies. I had the same problem.
Flat cookies can be a result of a few different things. One potential problem could be old baking soda that does not cause the cookies to rise enough. Or the cookie batter could have gotten too warm while molding the cookies and they spread out more than usual when baking. Again, it’s hard to know for sure on my end, I’ve not had this issue. But those are things that could make any cookie recipe turn out a bit flat.
How far ahead could I make the dough for the cookies?
I usually make them the same day, but you may be able to make the dough a day ahead and keep refrigerated.
Disappointed. Mine came out flat also. I don’t know what happened. I thought I could inject a little slime anyway, but even with microwaving the frosting, I could not get the injector to fill. ☹️