Halloween Celebration Trick & Treat: Deep Dish Snickers Cookie Tart with Pretzel Crust & Bloody Eyeball Punch!

I can't believe it is finally time for Halloween!  It is truly one of my favorite holidays, and not just because it is the start of the entire holiday season.  The costumes, the candy, and parties...  there's just to much fun to be had!  Since I am a huge fan of baking and coming up with new recipes, this year I made both a dessert and a spooky punch for a Halloween celebration that we will be having.  In keeping with the chocolate-centric theme of the holiday, I used Snickers bars in my cookie tart!  For my spooky beverage, I floated some creepy edible eyeballs in the bloody punch.  I'm so excited to share with my Halloween Trick and Treat with you!

First up, is my Snickers Deep Dish Cookie Tart with Pretzel Crust!

P.S. - This would be perfect to use up leftover Halloween candy (if you can manage to find any)!

This time, I think I really outdid myself!  The recipe is chock full of contrasting flavors and textures.  I mean, it's two of my favorite opposite desserts in one: a cookie AND a tart!  While the cookie and the chocolate bits are sweet, the pretzel crust and the peanuts are a salty surprise!  The crispy crust contrasts with the soft cookie, the melted chocolate, and the chewy caramel and nuts.  Speaking of melted chocolate, after the Snickers are baked, they stay ooey and gooey even after the dessert has cooled.  Super delicious!

The bloody punch is one that I created for the whole family to enjoy...  assuming you don't mind a few bloodshot eyeballs bobbing up and down in your drink!  They're actually super tasty, so remember to stay tuned for the recipe at the bottom of the post.  Eye'll be watching!

Snickers Deep Dish Cookie Tart with Pretzel Crust
A Vintage Zest original

Ingredients

• 2 cups pretzel "dust"  (Depending on the kind of pretzels you have, you may need 3 - 4 cups of pretzels to yield 2 cups of crumbs)
• 3 Tbsp. real maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1/8 tsp. salt

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 16 fun size Snickers bars
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Note: I used the Fun-sized Snickers bars which means that each piece will have a small lining of chocolate around the caramel and nuts.  I bought the Mixed Fun Size package and had enough in my bag for this recipe!

Directions

1. Crush the pretzels into "dust" either with a rolling pin or in a food processor.

2. Mix the crust ingredients (broken pretzels, maple syrup, canola oil, and salt)
with a fork until clumpy and resembles coarse sand.

3. Press an equal amount into ten mini tart pans that have been sprayed with non-stick spray.

4. Optional: If you prefer a crispier crust, bake at 350 for 5 - 8 minutes.  If not, skip to the next step.

5. For the filling, melt butter, then mix in the sugar and flour.

6. Incorporate the eggs and vanilla extract.

7. To chop the Snickers, cut in three lengthwise strips.  Then, cut across the strips to yield smaller squares.

Chop, chop, chop!  Repeat with the remaining 15 bars.

8. Add the chopped Snickers and chocolate chips to the mixture.

9. Pour into the crusts.

10. Bake at 350 for 35 - 45 minutes.  The reason there is so much variability because if you have small tarts like mine, versus a large one, it will bake much quicker.  Also, some people like to have a little bit of gooey cookie dough in the middle, so they might want to shave off a couple of minutes to their cooking time.

That's it!  And here's your finished Cookie Tart!  Keep reading for the Bloody Eyeball Punch!

Bloody Eyeball Punch
A Vintage Zest original

Ingredients

• 7 UP (2 Liter bottle)
• Hawaiian Punch (1 Gallon)

• Lychees, canned (1 can will yield approximately 35 eyeballs)
• Frozen blueberries, thawed (10 oz.)
• Frozen raspberries, thawed (10 oz.)

Directions

1. To construct the eyeballs, you will need the canned lychees (fresh would be much harder to work with) and the frozen blueberries and raspberries.

2. For each "eyeball," smash a small piece of frozen raspberry into the "eyesocket."

3. Then, put a blueberry in the to fill the space as the "pupil!"

3. To complete the bloody look, rub another frozen raspberry all around the lychee to release some of the juices.  It creates that veiny look!  Let dry for a few minutes.

4. Mixture the 7 UP and Hawaiian Punch in about 1 to 2 ratio and rim the glasses with frozen raspberry to look like dripping blood into the glass.  It didn't photograph nicely at all but it looks creepy in person!

5. Float the eyeballs in the glasses or punch bowl.  They will continue to bob up and down and spin around to look at you the whole night!  And may I say they are delicious!

I hope you enjoy this Halloween Treat of Bloody Eyeball Punch!  Oh, you thought the Halloween Punch your Trick and the Cookie Tart was your Treat?

Well... the lychee eyeballs are a very delicious treat, but the tarts will definitely trick you into eating the whole entire thing!

(Cue maniacal laugh)  MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

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Cheesy Halloween tricks aside, I really hope that you enjoy these two additions to your Halloween party.  :)  I'm ready to dig in, aren't you?

Bon appetit!