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Monster Eye Cookies are soft vanilla cookies made perfectly scary with candy eyeballs and fun colors. Easy to make and super tasty, these are the perfect Halloween cookie to celebrate the season!
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! In this house, we take Halloween one step further than a lot of people.
It started it out innocently enough with a couple of decorations here and a tiny little skeleton over there but since then our Halloween obsession has reached epic proportions. I keep saying ‘we’ because it makes me feel better but really the obsessive one is me. #guilty
As I’ve mentioned in my Monster Mash Halloween Candy Bark and my Toil and Trouble Halloween Cupcakes, we put on huge yard displays for the neighborhood kids every year. It’s my favorite thing to do and my favorite time of year. That being said, you can’t have Halloween without some delicious scary sweet treats too, right?
WHY THIS MONSTER EYE COOKIE RECIPE IS THE BEST!
These Monster Eye Cookies are the most adorable and super easy vanilla cookies you can possibly make and the googly eyes are huge hit with the kids. Halloween Monster Eye Cookies take no time at all to bring together and we all know that children love anything involving food coloring!
To make these Monster Eye Cookies, you will need:
- Butter
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- All purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Cream of tartar
- Gel food coloring
- Candy eyeballs
HOW TO MAKE MONSTER EYE COOKIES
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Start by creaming together the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl. Add in the egg and egg yolks and one at a time and beat into the mixture before adding the next one.
Mix in the vanilla and salt and in a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and then slowly incorporate into your sugar batter .. this takes time, it will seem very dry at first but will come together nicely.
Chill your cookie dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Once chilled, separate dough into three or four batches (depending on how many colors of cookies you are making) and add in 1 dollop of food coloring to each batch.. beat until well mixed.
Using a spoon or a scooper, roll 1 inch cookie dough balls and place them on your cookie sheet – do no flatten!
Bake for 10-12 minutes and remove and remove from oven.
When you remove your Monster Eye Cookies from the oven, immediately gently press candy eyeballs onto the cookies while they are still warm. Let sit on the cookie sheet for 1 minute before moving the cookies to a wire rack
Let cool and enjoy!!
BAKING TIPS FOR MONSTER EYE COOKIES
- If you want to use a flavor other than vanilla, go for it! I make these cookies using almond extract all the time and you can substitute vanilla with whatever flavor extract you prefer.
- I recommend using gel food coloring vs liquid food coloring. Gel food coloring will not change the consistancy of your cookie dough the way liquid food coloring will. Food coloring paste is also an awesome alternative.
- If you have a kitchen scoop, put it to good use on these cookies. Scoopers are a great way to ensure your cookies will all be the same size.
- Chilling your cookie dough for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator helps your cookies not spread out so much when baking.
PSST.. WHERE DO I BUY CANDY EYBALLS?
These days, candy eyeballs seem to be sold just about everywhere. You can usually find them in the baking aisle of your local supermarket, places likeWalmart and Target and stores that sell cake decorating supplies like Michaels.
Looking for more easy Halloween inspired recipes? Don’t forget to check out these other Halloween recipes I know you will love!
Want to see all my Halloween recipes? Check them out HERE!
If you’ve tried these Monster Eye Cookies or any other recipe on this website, please don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you it came out in the comments below.
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Monster Eye Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2.5 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3-4 tubes Gel Food Coloring favorite Halloween colors
- candy eyeballs, various sizes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
- Start by creaming together the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl. Add in the egg and egg yolks one at a time and beat into the mixture before adding the next one.
- Mix in the vanilla and salt
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and then slowly incorporate into your sugar batter.
- Chill your cookie dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Once chilled, separate batter into three or four batches and add in a dollop of food coloring to each batch.. beat until well mixed.
- Spoon or scoop into 1 inch balls and place them on your cookie sheet - do no flatten!
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately gently press candy eyeballs onto the cookies while they are still warm .. let cookies sit on the cookie sheet for 1 minute before moving the cookies to a wire rack
- Let cool and enjoy!!
Notes
BAKING TIPS FOR MONSTER EYE COOKIES
- If you want to use a flavor other than vanilla, go for it! I make these cookies using almond extract all the time and you can substitute vanilla with whatever flavor extract you prefer.
- I recommend using gel food coloring vs liquid food coloring. Gel food coloring will not change the consistancy of your cookie dough the way liquid food coloring will. Food coloring paste is also an awesome alternative.
- If you have a kitchen scoop, put it to good use on these cookies. Scoopers are a great way to ensure your cookies will all be the same size.
- Chilling your cookie dough for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator helps your cookies not spread out so much when baking.
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Update Notes: This post was originally published in September of 2017 but was republished with an updated recipe, new photos, step by step instructions and tips in September of 2019.
Would this be made with salted or unsalted butted?
Made these with my kids this weekend …they loved them! Very tasty and perfect for Halloween!
Thanks so much Joyce, glad you enjoyed them.
Yum!!