Halloween Dirt Cups

Dirt pudding cup in a glass jar topped with a white chocolate spiderweb and M&M spider.

5 from 1 vote

These Halloween Dirt Cups - made with homemade chocolate pudding and crushed Oreo cookies and topped with creepy crawly M&M bugs - put a spooky spin on nostalgic dirt dessert pudding cups!

Prep Time40

Cook Time20

Chill Time4

Total Time5

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 217kcal

Author: Allison Ferraro

Equipment

1 Medium saucepan
1 Medium heat-proof bowl
6 4-ounce canning jars (or ramekins)
Plastic wrap
2 Pastry bags
Wax Paper

Ingredients

Pudding Cups:

2 ½ cups whole milk, divided
½ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
4 teaspoons cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt
3 large egg yolks
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
2 ounces chocolate wafer cookies, crushed (8 Oreo cookies with filling removed)

Decorations:

⅓ cup chocolate melting wafers
⅓ cup white chocolate melting wafers
M&Ms

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Make the chocolate pudding.

Place 2 cups (488 grams) of the milk in a medium saucepan with sugar and cocoa powder over medium heat until steaming and warm. Whisk the mixture gently while it's heating up.
In a medium, heat-proof bowl, whisk together remaining ½ cup (122 grams) milk, cornstarch, salt, egg yolks, and vanilla extract.
Temper the eggs by slowly pouring about half of the steaming chocolate milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly to blend.
Add the egg mixture back to the saucepan and heat the entire mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly. Be sure to scrape the corners of the pan so that the pudding doesn't overcook around the sides.
When pudding comes to a rolling boil, continue to whisk and boil for another 2 to 3 minutes as pudding thickens.
Remove pudding from heat and pour or spoon into jars or ramekins.
Cover each jar with plastic wrap so it's touching the top of the pudding. Refrigerate the pudding for at least 4 hours before serving.

Make the white chocolate spiderwebs.

While the pudding chills, make the white chocolate spiderwebs. Trace the size of your pudding jars onto a piece of wax paper using a marker and set aside.
Melt white chocolate wafers in the microwave or on the stove. Then add the melted white chocolate to a pastry bag and use scissors to cut just a tiny bit off of the end to create a small hole for piping.
Using the circles as a guide, pipe 4 intersecting lines inside of one circle.
Next, pipe a swooped line from the end of one line to the next. Continue this around the circle until the ends of each line is connected by a swooped line.
Repeat the swooped line pattern two more times, working down toward the center where the straight lines intersect, to create a spiderweb pattern. Let the chocolate set at room temperature or in the fridge.

Decorate the pudding cups.

When the pudding has set and you're nearly ready to serve, remove the jars from the fridge and remove the plastic wrap from each.
Top each pudding cup with the crushed chocolate wafer cookie crumbs.
Carefully pull the wax paper away from the white chocolate spiderwebs and then place them atop half of the jars.
Place one brown M&M onto each spiderweb, and place green M&Ms into a caterpillar shape on the remaining jars.
Reheat the white chocolate in the pastry bag in the microwave so that it's once again pipe-able. Pipe two dots for eyes onto each caterpillars' head, and then pipe little lines for legs up from the "dirt" to the other M&Ms.
Melt chocolate wafers in the microwave or on the stove. Then add the melted chocolate to a pastry bag and use scissors to cut just a tiny bit off of the end to create a small hole for piping.
Create spiders' legs by piping chocolate up from the spiderwebs to the brown M&Ms.
Serve and enjoy!

Nutrition