Healthy Halloween Cookie Recipes

Make a batch of these easy homemade dried-fruit bars to tuck into your kid's lunchbox all week.

These easy apple-cinnamon fruit bars make a big batch--perfect for fall potlucks and parties.

A retired writing professor and mother of two daughters, Jessie Grearson got inspiration for these mini tarts from a pineapple-coconut bar that her mother used to make. Her version successfully uses whole-wheat pastry flour and less butter and sugar.

Classic whoopie pies combine a creamy filling sandwiched between cakey chocolate cookies. Some are filled with a marshmallow cream frosting while others are filled with whipped cream. Even those of us who grew up with the former fell in love with our lighter version of the whipped cream-filled treats.

This thumbprint cookie uses honey as the only sweetener and tender ground almonds to replace much of the butter found in similar cookies. Just a touch of butter mixed with honey in the filling gives it a rich flavor without too much saturated fat.

Cynthia Farr-Weinfeld, a hypnotherapist and writer, started improving the nutritional profile of a friend's mother's ginger cookie recipe by substituting whole-wheat pastry flour for all-purpose flour and canola oil for shortening. “Experiment with these cookies,” she advises, “as they taste great either slightly underdone or crispy.” She calls them “the quickest cookies you'll ever bake.”

Classic chocolate chip cookies get a fall update by mixing in pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice. Not only are these pumpkin cookies even more flavorful than regular chocolate chip cookies, they're also oh-so-soft and cakelike. Use chocolate chunks for big gooey bites of chocolate or opt for mini chocolate chips to ensure a bit of chocolate in each bite.

Nancy Caverly gave her grandmother's recipe for ginger molasses cookies a little makeover--reducing the butter and adding crystallized ginger for a spicy jolt.

The deep flavors of molasses, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg make these wholesome pumpkin cookies delicious without the addition of butter--and they lend themselves beautifully to the inclusion of whole-wheat flour. They are also the perfect texture for a sandwich cookie--fill them with a slightly sweetened cream cheese frosting.

These pretty streusel-topped bars are quick to make and easy to transport. Made with unsweetened apricot preserves, they are a good source of potassium and beta carotene.

These soft chocolate cookies have a big peanut flavor since they use peanut butter and peanut butter chips.

Strategy and operations director Josh Gitlin gave this low-fat cookie three layers of chocolate flavor with cocoa powder, grated bittersweet chocolate and cocoa nibs.