Everyone gets excited about Christmas baking, but I think Halloween baking should be taken more seriously. Actually, maybe “seriously” isn’t the right word? I mean, we are using candy eyes here to make cookies that look like monsters. So these aren’t exactly cookies for anyone serious! But Halloween baking needs to be more of a “thing” because there are so many totally awesome treats you can make that are only appropriate during a 6 week time period. Can you add candy eyes to Christmas baking? No. Probably not. But with “Halloween baking” you can add as many or as few candy eyes as you like and you end up with cookies (or whatever…) that are fun and ever so slightly creepy. There is nothing more satisfying than baking something that makes everyone smile!
I LOVE peanut butter cookies. I think they might be my favourite cookie? The store bought ones taste so good, and it’s taken me years to perfect a homemade recipe that tastes just as good! This recipe is a keeper! Even though it’s all kitschy with the eyeballs for Halloween, make sure you save the recipe for the rest of the year! The cookies taste amazing with or without the eyeballs!
Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Eyeball Cookies
The full printable recipe is at the end of this post, but here’s a list (including affiliate links) of what you’ll need:
unsalted butter brown sugar smooth peanut butter (not crunchy or natural) vanilla extract 1 egg flour baking soda salt Reese’s Pieces candy eyeballs
Some people have said they have trouble finding Reese’s Pieces. Maybe it’s all the peanut allergies these days? I get my Reese’s Pieces at the bulk store, but you can sometimes find them in the baking aisle at the grocery store.
I think next time I bake these cookies, I’ll leave out the chocolate chips. Or maybe use milk chocolate chips instead? The regular chocolate chips seem to give it a bitter taste? So I’m going to list the chocolate chips as “optional” and you can decide if you want to include them.
Mmmm… doesn’t the dough look delicious!? Yum!
Roll out the dough into 1.5″ little balls (slightly flattened) and place them 3″ apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Flatten the balls just a little bit so they aren’t completely round. I just pushed them down a little bit so they would spread more – my dough balls were still about 1″ high.
This is important – Do NOT add the candy eyeballs until AFTER the cookies bake. I haven’t tried it, but I’ve read that the candy eyes will melt in the oven. So when my cookie came out of the oven, this is what they looked like. Soft, peanut butter cookie goodness!
As soon as you take them out of the oven, press the candy eyeballs into the hot cookies. If you have one package of the regular sized eyeballs, you should have enough for 2 eyeballs per cookie. You’ll need to buy 2 packages of candy eyes if you want more eyes than that in your cookies. Or you can just not put eyeballs into ALL of your cookies. The cookies are just as delicious without eyeballs!
I used 1 package of candy eyes – Some of my cookies had 2 eyes, some had 3 eyes, and the last dozen had no eyes because… well… I only bought 1 package.
Not only do the cookies look spooky awesome, they also taste delicious! I LOVE peanut butter cookies!
The cookies have a delicious soft texture. And the Reese’s Pieces give them that extra burst of peanut butter goodness!
I love that the eyeballs make them look like little monsters. This is such a fun cookie for Halloween!
Reese’s Pieces are so yummy, and the colours are so perfect for fall! These Reese’s Pieces peanut butter eyeball cookies would be super fun for a Halloween party! Or you could wrap them up in cellophane, tie them up with an orange ribbon and give them as a gift! Or you can just feed them to your family. They won’t last long! If you’re looking for more fun recipes to make with candy eyeballs this Halloween, check out our super easy Rice Krispie Treat Monsters.
Check out our new book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids for 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
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