Happy Halloween! Did you already go trick-or-treating? We’re going tonight, but we got in the spooky spirit this weekend with this toddler-approved Halloween tea party. The best news: Everything other than decorating the cookies is super easy and fast, so if you want to throw together a similar Halloween tea today—or just try one or two of these snacks—you still can!
Here is what I included in our Halloween tea: Pumpkin scones, Pimento cheese sandwiches on pumpernickel bread, monster celery bites, Jack-o-lantern pizza pockets, pumpkin-spice Rice Krispie treats, decorated sugar cookies, and chocolate-cinnamon skeleton cookies. The tea itself was vanilla chai.
For the scones, I used this recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction, though I just cut the butter into cubes and incorporated it with my hands instead of grating it. I also skipped the glaze, but I’ve made it before and it’s delicious, so do make it if you have time. I bought the pimento cheese and pumpernickel bread, and cut the sandwiches into circles using a biscuit cutter. The celery bites are just pieces of celery with peanut butter and candy eyeballs (cream cheese would work instead of peanut butter if you’d prefer). The Rice Krispie treats are the recipe from the package, but I used pumpkin-spice marshmallows and orange Rice Krispies, plus added a little extra pumpkin pie spice and Halloween sprinkles on top. These Frankenstein Krispie treats would also be perfect!
For the Jack-o-lantern pizza pockets, I bought refrigerated pie crust dough (one package of crusts made six pockets using my pumpkin cookie cutter, which is 4 inches wide), pizza sauce, and shredded mozzarella cheese. The oven was already at 400F, because I made them right after the scones. I cut 12 pumpkins out of the dough, using the cookie cutter, then spread some pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese on six of the pumpkins. I used a sharp knife to cut jack-o-lantern faces on the other six.
Next, I placed the pumpkins with faces on top of the ones with pizza sauce/cheese, then used a fork to press and crimp the edges down. I baked until the crust was turning golden and the cheese had melted (not sure exactly how long, but I think it was about 20 minutes). Super easy and adorable. You can add mini pepperonis or other toppings to yours if you’d like!
The cookies took a little longer, of course, but if you don’t have the time or inclination to make your own cookies, you can still have a fabulous Halloween tea with store-bought cookies, cupcakes, Halloween Peeps, a candy-corn layer cake, or other treats. Blackberry-honeydew skewers would also be cute, or pumpkin-shaped pieces of orange cheese on crackers.
As far as the tea, pumpkin spice would have been my first choice, but I couldn’t find it in my stash. Any kind of chai or other spiced tea is perfect for the season, though, or even a Japan-style apple tea, if you’re so inclined. Apple cider, apple juice or herbal tea is great for the no-caffeine crowd.
Please tag me or let me know if you do put together a Halloween tea of your own! I’d love to see it.