These Hocus Pocus Cookies are soft and fluffy sugar cookies, decorated to match the orange, green, and purple colors of the Sanderson sisters’ dresses! This is an easy and fun recipe to make for Halloween or a family movie night.
Everyone is so excited about Hocus Pocus 2, and these easy and delicious Hocus Pocus cookies are the perfect snacks to enjoy with the movie!
Feel free to enjoy these with the original Hocus Pocus movie too, or any of your favorite Halloween films.
Soft, cakelike Halloween cookies with a ton of festive sprinkles and white chocolate chips are perfect for a classic Halloween party, a scary movie viewing, or just a fun family activity for an October afternoon.
Looking for more fun and spooky cookie recipes? We have some great Halloween sweet treats for you to try, like orange and black Halloween Pinwheel Cookies and Ghost Marshmallow Popcorn Balls.
For your favorite trick-or-treaters, serve sweet and salty Monster Halloween Snack Mix.
When you’re done here, head over to the Halloween Section of my other site, Fun Cookie Recipes! There are many more Haloween Cookie Recipes there for you to make.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Halloween Cookies are So Fun! – What other holiday would let you make a cookie that is purple, green, and orange? I love the bright colors in these Hocus Pocus cookies, they are extra fun for an extra exciting holiday.
- Traditional Flavors – These cookies might look different, but the flavor is really very traditional. These cookies are soft, cake-like, and flavored with butter, sugar, and vanilla extract. Another favorite cake-like cookie is my Half Moon Cookies recipe.
- Versatile Recipe – These cookies are green, purple, and orange because we’re summoning the essence of Winifred, Sarah, and Mary. You can mix up the colors to make this recipe suit any occasion. Try pastels for a birthday party, or red, white, and green to make Christmas cookies.
Ingredients In Hocus Pocus Cookies
Here’s what you need to make these brightly colored Halloween-themed sugar cookies:
Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
- Butter, Sugar, Eggs – The basic building blocks of most cookie recipes. Let the butter and eggs come to room temperature before mixing up the cookie dough.
- Flour, Salt, Baking Soda, and Cornstarch – The dry ingredients for these cookies include cornstarch, which is the secret ingredient for making soft, fluffy sugar cookies.
- Vanilla Extract – Use good pure vanilla extract to make the cookies taste delicious!
- Gel Food Coloring – I like the Wilton brand gel food colors for getting deep, bright colors. Look for Neon colors to make the colors really pop. Liquid food coloring can be used, but you will need to use quite a bit of it to get the colors you want.
- Halloween Sprinkles – I found these at my local grocery store, but you can use any red, green, and orange sprinkles that you find. These sprinkles come with little candy eyes too! I also used coarse sugar sprinkles to give a shimmery effect.
- White Chocolate Chips – I like the extra sweetness that these add to the sugar cookies.
How To Make Hocus Pocus Cookies
- Cream Butter and Sugar: In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and the sugar on high until it is fluffy and there are no more lumps. Break apart any chunks of butter or sugar with a fork and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add Eggs: Add the vanilla and sour cream and mix them in on a low setting. Then mix in the eggs, just until incorporated. Do not overmix.
- Mix in the Dry Ingredients: Add in the baking soda, cornstarch, salt, and just 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Mix on low until combined. Slowly add the rest of the flour, one cup at a time, and mix until there are no more streaks of flour.
- Color: Separate the dough into three equal portions and place each into a bowl. The dough may be sticky at this point, but it will be easier to work with after it chills. Use gel food coloring to tint one section green, one orange, and one purple. Start with a few drops, and add more if needed until you get deep and bright colors. Cover the bowls with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- Roll Balls: Scoop about half a tablespoon of each color of the dough and roll them into individual balls (about 1 inch in diameter). Then grab one of each color ball and push them together and carefully roll them into one larger ball.
- Flatten: Place each ball on the trays about 4 inches apart and lightly flatten them into a small cookie shape with your fingers. They will continue to spread and rise as they bake so make sure they have enough space between them.
- Decorate: Decorate each cookie with white chocolate chips and plenty of sprinkles.
- Bake: Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. Check for doneness after 8 minutes. They should still be a little soft when they come out. Allow them to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring them onto a plate.
Tip!
The white chocolate chips may brown a bit in the oven. To avoid that discoloration, you can add the chips after the cookies are baked. The hot cookies will melt the white chocolate just enough to hold them in place.
Recipe Tips
- Try a Different Flavor – Replace the vanilla extract with other extracts such as lemon, almond, or coconut to get new and exciting flavors.
- Don’t Skip Chilling the Dough – The cookies will spread too much if the dough is warm.
- Give the cookies space on the baking sheet. A good rule of thumb is to space them two to three inches apart so that they have room to spread.
Storing Tips
Store baked Hocus Pocus cookies in an airtight container. You can keep them at room temperature or in the fridge. Either way, try to eat them within three days.
Make the Dough up to 3 days ahead of time. Keep it refrigerated until you’re ready to bake.
More Delicious Fall Desserts
Once Halloween is over, you’ll want to keep on baking and serving delicious autumn desserts, and maybe you’ll want a bit fewer bright colors and fun themes. Try some of these new recipes that are sure to become favorites:
More Fun Halloween Recipes
Halloween Graveyard Dirt Cake
Ghost Marshmallow Popcorn Balls
Halloween Taco Dip
Candy Corn Jello Cups
FAQs
In most images, these are the colors of the dresses the sisters are wearing. Typically you’ll see Winnie in green, Mary in orange, and Sarah in a purple and red get-up. These colors are also connected to Halloween. Orange has always been the color of fall festivals, but green is the color of monsters, zombies, and wicked witches, and purple symbolizes mysticism and witchiness.
Sure! You can swap the colors to make these cookies match any occasion. You can also use only one or two colors if you want a less colorful cookie.
Hocus Pocus Cookies are going to be a big hit this year, and for many Halloween nights to come! Make sure you pin the recipe so more people can find it.
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Hocus Pocus Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 stick (½ cup,113g) unsalted butter softened
- 1 ¼ cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 large eggs at room temp
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- gel food coloring purple, orange, and green
- 2 cups sprinkles
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and the sugar on high until it is fluffy and there are no more lumps. Break apart any chunks of butter or sugar with a fork and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the vanilla extract and the sour cream and mix on a low setting. Then add in the eggs and mix on low until just incorporated. Do not overmix.
- Add in the baking soda, cornstarch, salt, and just one cup of the all purpose flour then mix on low. Slowly add in the rest of the flour one cup at a time and mix until there are no more streaks of flour in the dough.
- Divide the dough evenly into three separate bowls and add a few drops of the gel food coloring at a time. Mix it all in with a spatula or spoon. Add more food coloring as needed until the desired color is achieved. Keep in mind that the cookies will lighten a bit as they bake. Then cover the bowls in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes. The dough will be very sticky but will be firmer and easier to work with after chilling.
- Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- Scoop about half a tablespoon of each color of the dough and roll them into individual balls (about 1 inch in diameter). Then grab one of each color ball and push them together and carefully roll them into one larger ball.
- Place each ball about 4 inches apart and lightly flatten them into a small cookie shape with your fingers. They will continue to spread and rise as they bake so make sure they have enough space between them.
- Decorate each cookie with white chocolate chips and sprinkles. Then place them in the oven to bake for 8-10 minutes. Check for doneness after 8 minutes. They should still be a little soft when they come out. Allow them to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring them onto a plate.
Notes:
- Instead of chocolate chips, try candy eyeballs instead!
- You can use any festive sprinkles that you like. I used a combination of colored sanding sugar and other colorful sprinkles that matched the theme.
- To Store: Baked cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge for up to three days.
- To Make Ahead: The dough can be made and kept in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
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