I love Halloween. It’s definitely close behind Christmas on my list of favorites. Growing up my family celebrated the entire month of October with decorations, Halloween music, indoor haunted house, camping with ghost stories, apple orchards, pumpkin patches, hay rides and lots of leaf jumping. Halloween night was the icing on the cake. We would come home from school, finish our homework, have dinner and start the costume process. Rain or snow, we would layer up under our clown or bunny costumes and head out to collect our treats. My favorite part of the entire night was pouring out my bag of loot and organizing my candy by favorites.
This year I’m able to re-live my trick-or-treating days through the eyes of our four year old Sophia! The past three years have been really fun on Halloween but I continuously get more excited as the years go by. This year she’ll really understand what/when Halloween is and why people are giving her candy if she says ‘Trick or Treat!’
The first step in minimizing challenges is to prepare. The Girl Scout in me always sees the worst outcome of every situation and prepares accordingly. First up was preparing for the trick-or-treaters that come to our home. We live in a big neighborhood so I always buy 6 of the biggest bags of candy. We also participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project where we offer glow necklaces for children with allergies. Kids have the choice of chocolates or a necklace. If you’re super cute, funny or make up a Halloween cheer you can have both!
The second step is the busy night of waiting for Daddy to get home, eat dinner, put on costumes and head out for trick-or-treating while giving time for a little candy sorting before bedtime. We solve this issue by having a pizza waiting for when Daddy gets home so we’re able to spend more time on Halloween fun.
The third challenge in the midwest is preparing for weather. Since Sophie is such a big fan of dinosaurs, her Grandma found a dinosaur costume at a consignment shop that is perfect for her! We were sure to get it a little big so she will be able to wear warm clothes underneath. It also has a hood as the dinosaur head to keep her ears warm. There aren’t any restricting parts to the costume or extra accessories that she could lose on our walk. We also have a backup lighter costume of cat ears and a pink tutu if she refuses to wear the dinosaur costume.
The final challenge is figuring out what to do with all of the candy left over from trick-or-treating. When I was little, my mom and I always made cookie pizza for my Birthday and Halloween. This is my favorite dessert to make for parties because I can customize it using people’s favorite candy bars.
Halloween Candy Cookie Pizza
Ingredients:
- NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Halloween Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- 1/4 c peanut butter
- 3/4 c NESTLÉ® Milk Chocolate Morsels
- Candy bars of your choice
- Candy Eyes and Halloween Sprinkles (optional)
Let the cookie dough sit out of the fridge for a half hour. Spread out cookie dough on a pizza pan being sure to use cookie spray on the pan. Bake according to directions on packaging. I used the shortest amount of time to start and kept an eye until it was the perfect golden brown.
While the cookie is warm out of the oven, dollop the peanut butter and sprinkle the chocolate morsels evenly.
Smear the two together to make the ‘pizza sauce’. If you’re a fan of peanut butter, switch the ratio of chocolate to peanut butter.
Chop the candy bars into decent sized pieces and sprinkle evenly throughout pizza. Add the candy eyes and Halloween Sprinkles.
Cut and serve. Best eaten warm and with milk.
Have you been a fan of Butterfinger since Bart was the spokesman? It’s my favorite topping on Halloween Candy Cookie Pizza. What do you do with your leftover Halloween candy?
Other Halloween posts:
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I love this! Pinned to my Halloween board and I’m thinking of making it for the adult Halloween party we’ll be going to. Thanks so much for sharing! Can’t wait to see pics of Soph <3
Thank you for pinning Tia! I can PROMISE it will be gone by the end of the night if you bring it to a party! It’s irresistible! You’ll definitely see a pic of Soph on Instagram. 😉 What are you dressing up as?
What lovely memory of cookie pizza you have! And whoa, the sweetness overload possibility is high, hehe. You seemed uber prepared for the big night. Luckily it’s on a Saturday this year, so it’s less hectic getting home from work/school and having to have dinner right away before heading out. Have fun!
Never too much sugar! 😉 That’s what the milk is for. 🙂 Saturday will make it much easier! We’ll be coming from a class party though and then straight back out the Trick-or-Treat. 🙂 What are you guys doing this year and what are you dressing up as?! Last year’s octopus costumes were TOO CUTE!
Ooh yum, these look delicious! I’m really looking forward to Halloween with Eve this year since she has more awareness of what’s going on than she did last year.
What’s Eve going to be for Halloween this year??! Any plans? Maybe she could help you make this treat!
Yum!! We love Halloween here, I’m usually knee deep in costume making but not this year. Ask me again this weekend. 😀
XOXO
HAHAH! DID YOU GIVE IN?! What does everyone want to be? I was going to make Soph’s costume as well but her Grandma found a dinosaur costume at a consignment shop that will be perfect! What are your plans this year?
Wow! What a neat idea and it looks so cool. Definitely gonna make a cookie pizza with my little this week. We love those Hot Pockets too. That’s my go to on days when I’m barely able to grab a bite and have no time to cook.
It does look so much more festive with the sprinkles and eyes. I’ve never added that before. B will LOVE helping you with that! Especially sprinkling the chocolate morsels and candy bits!
This is adorable! I love the addition of the candy eyes!
Yumyum! The cookie pizza looks awesome!
It’s the best!
This halloween cookie pizza looks awesome! Now I know exactly what I’ll do with all that leftover candy =)