White Chocolate Candy Corn Cookies — These Halloween cookies are PACKED with candy corn and white chocolate chips. They’re easy to make and are always a hit with the kids!
Creating These Candy Corn Cookies
Candy corn. Oh, the memories of a few pieces clanking against the bottom of my trick-or-treating bucket. On Halloween, houses that ran out of fun-sized Snickers, or so-called ‘good’ candy, used to toss out candy corn.
After seeing it recently appear in stores for the season I promptly tossed it into my cart not knowing for sure what I was going to make with it. I baked it into the most soft, tender, buttery cookie dough base in my cookie arsenal. And then I added white chocolate chips.
I used a dough base I haven’t used in about a year. It’s one I used for both my Maraschino Cherry White Chocolate Cookies and my Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies, which are cookies inspired by my Cranberry Bliss Bars. I like this dough base for recipes where I want a softer, lighter, more delicate and tender dough, and when white chocolate is involved.
This dough is slightly sweeter and creamier than my trusty chocolate chip cookie dough base. Candy corn would have been fine in that base too, but it really shines in this dough. The dough is reminiscent of Lofthouse cookie dough, minus the cake flour. It calls for 2 tablespoons of cream or half-and-half which isn’t much, but the milk really tenderizes the dough and it just melt in your mouth.
When I had previously used this base, I hadn’t yet hopped on the cornstarch bandwagon. So this time around I added two teaspoons, like I do with most of my cornstarch cookies. It helps create a softbatch-style cookie that’s so soft and supple, without turning cakey.
I had no idea my 6-year-old loved candy corn as much as she did until she went nuts over it these cookies. Growing up with more sugar in our house than in many bakeries, she’s usually pretty immune to what I make. Like me, it takes quite a bit to get her excited anymore.
After one of these she said, “Mom, I’m going to be thinking about these cookies all day tomorrow at school.”
I said, “Well sweetie if you want another one now, go for it.”
If I had a 6-year-old metabolism, I’d have seconds when fresh cookies were involved.
But she said, “No, I’d rather not so I can dream about them all day tomorrow.”
What’s in These Candy Corn Cookies?
To make this candy corn recipe, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Cream or half-and-half
- All-purpose flour
- Cornstarch
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Candy corn
- White chocolate chips
How to Make Candy Corn Cookies
To make these Halloween cookies, you’ll first need to cream together the butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the mixture and stir until just combined, then gently fold in the candy corn and white chocolate chips.
Then, scoop out the dough. I made 20 mounds of dough, each about 2 heaping tablespoons of dough. Because the candy corn and white chocolate chips are bulky, the raw dough mounds look quite large before being baked, but in the oven and as the dough cooks down around the candy corn and chips, the cookies flatten and turn out to be of average size.
Once you’ve formed the cookie dough balls, they need to chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. Once the dough has been chilled, you’re ready to bake the cookies.
I bake these candy corn cookies for just over 9 minutes. They’ll look very pale, glossy, and underdone, but they set up dramatically as they cool. Because this dough base is so buttery, baking longer than about 10 minutes could result in the undersides become overly browned.
Can I Freeze Candy Corn Cookie Dough?
Yes, absolutely! I would freeze the dough itself once rolled into mounds, and from there it will keep for probably 3 to 4 months in the freezer. You can bake the cookie dough balls from frozen (no need to thaw).
Can I Add Other Mix-Ins?
Yes, but I wouldn’t add more than 2ish cups of mix-ins total. Otherwise your cookie dough will be impossible to shape into balls.
Can I Make These Cookies Gluten-Free?
I haven’t tried that myself, so I can’t say for sure. Try making these with a gluten-free flour blend intended for baking and see how they turn out!
Can I Make These as Cookie Bars?
I haven’t tried this exact recipe as candy corn cookie bars, but I do have a recipe for Candy Corn White Chocolate M&M’s Blondies you might like.
Can I Omit the Cornstarch?
Technically, yes. However, I can’t guarantee that your Halloween cookies will turn out exactly like mine did if you omit the cornstarch. If you make these candy corn cookies without the cornstarch, please leave me a comment down below letting me know how they turn out!
Can I Scale Back the Amount of Mix-Ins?
Yes, feel free to add less chocolate chips and candy corn, if desired. I like these cookies as is, but I know everyone has different tastes, so tweak this recipe as desired.
Tips for Making Candy Corn Cookies
This is very, very important. Do NOT allow the candy corn pieces to lay directly on your baking tray and shield the candy with a pinch of dough. Candy corn is prone to burning, melting, and turning into a hot, crispy, lacey mess if baked directly on a hot tray. The candy corn that’s in the interior of the cookies should not melt or run, provided your dough was chilled before baking. After baking, it takes on a slightly chewier texture that’s scrumptious.
To make sure none of the candy corn is touching the baking tray, I simply check the bottom of the chilled cookie dough balls and push any stray candy corn pieces into the center of the dough as needed. Exposed candy corn on top of the cookie dough balls should be fine, but you don’t want any coming in contact with the hot baking tray.
Also note that you can use salted peanuts in place of the white chocolate chips. Peanuts balance out the sweet candy corn perfectly and make these Halloween cookies salty-sweet.
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White Chocolate Candy Corn Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, soften
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons cream or half-and-half
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 ½ cups candy corn, 10 to 11 ounces
- 1 cup white chocolate chips, or salted peanuts
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large bowl and electric hand mixer), cream together the first 5 ingredients (through vanilla) on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the next 5 ingredients (through optional salt), and mix on low speed until just incorporated, about 1 minute; don’t overmix.
- Add the candy corn, white chocolate chips (or peanuts), and mix until just incorporated.
- Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form heaping two-tablespoon mounds (I made 20). Place mounds on a large plate, flatten mounds slightly, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter.
- Important note – Strategically place candy corn so that it’s not baking directly on cookie sheet because it will melt, burn, or turn runny if it is. The candy corn pieces need to be in the interior of the cookies, shielded and buffered by dough.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet) and bake for about 9 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just beginning to set, even if slightly undercooked, pale and glossy in the center. Do not overbake because cookies will firm up as they cool. Baking longer than 10 minutes could result in cookies with overly browned undersides.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooking.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Halloween Desserts:
Lofthouse Soft Sugar Sprinkle Cookies — The texture of these cookies is similar to Lofthouse-Style sugar cookies. They’re buttery soft and light, without being airy or cakey.
Candy Corn and White Chocolate Blondies — The blondies are super soft, slightly chewy, and buttery. The candy corn stays chewy after it’s baked and the contrast of the dense, moist, tender bars against the chewy candy corn is great.
Soft and Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies — Between the molasses, pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin pie spice extract, the cookies beautifully showcase the flavors of fall.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Candy Bars — The bars are no-bake, easy, loaded with bold peanut butter flavor, and plenty of chocolate. There’s both a layer of melted chocolate and assorted candy bar pieces adorn the top.
Chocolate Chip M&M’s Halloween Cookies — Super soft, perfectly chewy, BROWNED BUTTER cookies that are LOADED with M&M’s and chocolate chips!
Loaded Halloween Cream Cheese Brownies – Ultra fudgy, rich brownies topped with a layer of orange cream cheese, sandwich cookies, and chocolate chips!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies – Rich, fudgy brownies topped with pumpkin and chocolate chips!
Originally posted October 6, 2013 and reposted October 30, 2020 with updated text.
What was the big feather ruffler??? Not sure about that spelling🤔 I’m mystified???
Candy corn. It’s a “controversial” ingredient for many…people either love it or hate it! :) Like I have found over the years Cool Whip, cream of mushroom soup, and cake mix even.
Perhaps the most disgustingly good cookie that I have ever made/eaten! I had only cream cheese chips, rather than white chocolate chips, but I just added another tsp vanilla to compensate for the slightly different flavor. I also used a full tsp salt to pop out the flavor more. Other than that, your instructions were followed to the letter. I am still trying to understand your rationale for the 2 tsp cornstarch, unless keeps the chips and candy corn from losing their shape during baking. I used a heaping, one-third cup dough per cookie, being careful to maintain the dough barrier on the bottom, as you recommended; however, I did get several pieces of candy corn that melted onto the parchment. I baked them for 11 minutes, the bottoms were not allowed to brown, and the cookie/melted corn all came cleanly off the parchment, after letting them continue to carry-over cook on the sheet for 10 minutes. Exquisite cookie!!! I appreciate all your research that went into perfecting it and your willingness to share it. Thank you.
Thanks for the 5 star and very detailed review, Zoe! I am glad they turned out exquisitely and that you followed my instructions about the dough barrier and that overall everything was great!
The cornstarch gives them the softbatch softness that I was trying to create. There used to be cookies on the market, a longggg time ago, that were called Keelber Softbatch Cookies. I don’t know if they still exist, but cornstarch in the dough creates a texture that you just can’t get without it.
i cannot wait to try this recipe. i don’t like white chocolate at all, so i will use the salted peanuts. than i’m going to try the candy corn blondies, again using salted peanuts instead of white chocolate. after that, carrot apple cream cheese tunnel cake because that video popped up on the side while i was here.
That’s great and I am so glad you are going to give these cookies a try! Honestly the cookie dough based is soooo sooo good. I have a cranberry white choc holiday cookie (sorry that they all seem to have white choc in them) that I also use this base in and it’s just so buttery and rich and great. Enjoy these and the blondies with the salted peanuts and the carrot apple tunnel cake!
Can I make these smaller? (1 Tabl.) ??
Yes but make sure you make them big enough to actually stuff the candy corn inside the dough and not let it outside the dough ball or touching the sheet pan based on my advice in the post. That is going to be harder to do with a lesser amount of dough used.
What a fun recipe. I have a candy corn craving (problem) and googled recipes and found this gem. I was happy with the results for my first time trying it out. The key is to carefully follow the directions and tips to avoid any candy corn fail. I took extra time to imbed the candy corn so none were exposed at the bottom. This was challenging and time consuming. Not every cookie was pretty, but they all tasted great. If preparing for a party or special event, I’d suggest a practice batch first. Towards the end, seemed I had extra corn and chips left but no dough remaining. Next time I would use slightly less candy corn.
What a fun recipe. I have a candy corn craving (problem) and googled recipes and found this gem. I was happy with the results for my first time trying it out. The key is to carefully follow the directions and tips to avoid any candy corn fail. I took extra time to imbed the candy corn so none were exposed at the bottom. This was challenging and time consuming. Not every cookie was pretty, but they all tasted great. If preparing for a party or special event, I’d suggest a practice batch first. Towards the end, seemed I had extra corn and chips left but no dough remaining. Next time I would use slightly less candy corn.
Thanks for the detailed and thorough review. You’re right on all counts – that if you’re making this for an event or party, make a test batch first; and I can see how you may have a bit of chips/corn leftover but used up the dough so you could scale those back slightly. I must eat them as I go along making the cookies out of the mixing bowl :)
And yes, definitely have to follow the directions and tips to avoid fails which it sounds like you did and glad these turned out well for you!
I have an addiction to candy corn this time of year and this cookie recipe hit the spot. I really appreciated the specific, clear directions given. I made painstaking (but fun) effort to strategically imbed the candy corn in the dough. 9/20 cookies were presentable, but the less than perfect tasted great, too. I was glad to flatten cookie dough before chilling and keeping to strict 9 minutes was critical. I think next time I would use a few less candy corn and white chips, because it was hard finding room for them all within the dough blobs. If preparing for a party, I’d try a practice batch first. A few candy corn were vulnerable and seeped out off to the sides, creating a gooey mess.
great