Trick ‘r Treat Snacks

There is a time and place for an elaborate Halloween spread, but this wasn’t it.

For this Trick ’r Treat movie night, I wanted to challenge myself to keep things simple, accessible, and something that I could easily do during a weeknight. Because let’s be honest, most of my recipes take me 3-4 business days to complete.

So I leaned into Sam, jack-o’-lanterns, and classic Halloween flavors: apple, caramel, cinnamon, pumpkin, popcorn, and, obviously, plenty of candy.

The result is three ridiculously doable treats: a fizzy pumpkin-apple cider with a caramel cinnamon-sugar rim, a sweet-and-salty popcorn mix loaded with pretzels, Bugles, and Reese’s Pieces, and little jack-o’-lantern sugar cookie pops inspired by Sam’s lollipop.

Because sometimes the best Halloween plans are just yummy snacks and a great movie.

The Details

Samhain Cider

I am actually so impressed with how tasty and easy this one was. You get classic fall flavors with pumpkin puree and apple juice, topped with ginger beer and a caramel-cinnamon-sugar rim; you are set! I also think the sprig of thyme does a lot of lifting, making this feel a bit different from other pumpkin apple cider drinks out there. The hardest part was making a jack-o-lantern apple slice, which can easily be skipped

Kreeg’s Candy Popcorn

While we'll never know whether Mr. Kreeg was a fan of popcorn or candy in popcorn, I think he might have enjoyed the witchy fingers we all think of with Bugles and the sweet peanut butter with Reese’s Pieces. I am surprised I enjoyed this as much as I did. I'm normally a super buttery popcorn girl with pickled jalapeños, but this felt so perfect for this film.

Sam’s Lollipop Cookies

Sooo, it's a bit of a misnomer; there is no lollipop involved at all, but this is definitely a reference to the famous lollipop Sam wields throughout the film. This was so much fun. It’s basically a sugar cookie sandwich with orange cream cheese frosting and chocolate pieces to create the jack-o-lantern faces.