10 Fun Sandwich Ideas for Halloween!

I was doodling recently whilst thinking about Halloween, and decided to see how many simple sandwich designs I could come up with based around a circle, as I think that a circle cutter is the most likely shape that your average person would already have available in their kitchen (if not, I do have some nesting circle cutter sets currently available in the Eats Amazing Shop!).  I then had a go at putting some of the sandwiches together – most of them were really simple and quick to make, always a bonus when you’re rushing around trying to get lunch packed in the morning! I think some of them are simple enough ideas to put together in bulk for a Halloween party too. I had loads of ideas but stopped at 10 – hopefully that is plenty to be getting on with!

A few tips before I begin:

1. I used various sizes of cutter from a nesting circle cutter set to make all of these sandwiches.  Most of them could easily be resized to make mini versions for party food – just use a smaller circle cutter. For some of the sandwiches I also used tiny circle cutters from my mini bento cutter sets.  If you don’t have circle cutters, you could try using different sized glasses, mugs, bowls or plates by cutting around them with a small sharp knife.

2. A good tip when making shaped sandwiches is to cut each piece of bread out separately and fill them after – this way you will get much neater edges.

3. If using ham or other sandwich meats, cut the meat into shape (in this case a circle), before adding to the shaped bread.  The same applies to slices of cheese – if using a hard cheese such as cheddar then cut into slices, lay them out together to make one large slice and cut into shape before transferring to the bread.

4. If your sandwich is going in a lunch box rather than being served up immediately, you can ‘glue’ any features or decorations in place using foods such as cream cheese, houmous, peanut butter, chocolate spread, honey or jam, depending on your sandwich filling.

5. For some sandwiches I used edible icing eyes, for others I made eyes from cheese using a mini circle cutter (you could also use the end of a plastic drinks straw) and an edible marker pen to dot them.  Both kinds of eyes are interchangeable, so you can swap in cheese if you don’t have icing eyes or icing eyes if you don’t want to use cheese.

6. I also used edible marker pens to add details to some of the sandwiches – if you don’t have any then food colouring and a fine paint brush will do the same job.

7. You’ll most likely generate lots of spare crusts of bread after making circle-shaped sandwiches, but don’t waste them! See this post for some great ideas for using them up.

Spooky Spider – This is very simple to make.  Cut out two circles with the largest size cutter that will fit your bread, fill and put together in a sandwich, add twiglet legs by poking them into the sandwich filling, and add eyes cut from cheese with a mini circle cutter to the top.  I dotted the eyes with an edible marker pen, and added a little ham mouth, which I cut out using the same small circle cutter that I’d used for the eyes.  Other foods you could use for the legs include vegetable sticks such as carrot, pepper or cucumber, mini bread sticks or ‘stick shaped’ crisps (I’d use Organix carrot stix).

Pumpkin – Halloween wouldn’t be Halloween without a pumpkin or two! To make, cut out two circles with the largest sized cutter that will fit your bread and use mini cutters or the tip of a sharp knife to cut your face design into one of the pieces of bread.  Top the plain circle with your sandwich filling, then pop the face on top.  Press lightly with your circle cutter over the top of the sandwich to make the ‘lines’ on the pumpkin, and finish with a leaf pick and a twiglet stalk. You could also make the stalk from a stick of cucumber or green pepper.

Mummy – this one went down particularly well with Small Child! To make, first cut your bread into a circle and fill to make a sandwich.  Brown bread works particularly well for this one so that you get a good contrast with the tortilla strips.

To turn the plain circle sandwich into a mummy, cut some strips from a tortilla wrap.  Arrange the strips on a chopping board as you want them to be on the sandwich, leaving a gap for the eyes.  With the same sized cutter that you used for the sandwich, cut a circle from the tortilla strips.  Carefully transfer over to the top of your sandwich, sticking the strips into place with cream cheese or another edible ‘glue’ (see tips above).  Finish off with two edible eyes (I used icing eyes), popping them into the gap between strips.

Spider Web – I was really pleased with how this one turned out! At first I was planning on drawing with edible marker pen straight onto the sandwich, but they don’t work very well ordinary bread.  I then remembered that they work much better on tortilla wraps, so I cut a circle from the tortilla wrap using the same cutter that I had used for the sandwich and drew the web design on that.  I then ‘glued’ the piece of tortilla wrap to the top of the sandwich using houmous (you could use any edible ‘glue’ of your choice, see the tips above) and added a plastic spider to decorate.  The spider was taken from one of my spider cupcake rings, and was the perfect size for this project!

You could use this tortilla technique year-round to add fun designs to the top of your sandwiches, and maybe even let your child doodle on their own designs with edible marker pens!

Funny Monster – This was a very easy sandwich to make. First I cut two circles from bread, and one from ham using my largest circle cutter.  I added the ham to one circle to make the base of the sandwich.

I then took the second circle of bread and cut a section off for the mouth using the same circle cutter (see below).  I took a slice of cheddar cheese, and using the same cutter, cut a rounded slice off so that it would sit flush to the bread. I cut some little triangles from the other side of the cheese slice to make teeth, and carefully put it, along with the slice of bread, on top of the ham.  I finished the monster off with an eye made from half a Babybel cheese, a single blueberry for the pupil and some polka-dot picks.

Wizards Hat – This was Small Child’s favourite of all the Halloween sandwiches I made! First make the base of the hat by cutting two circles of bread and filling to make a sandwich. Don’t use the largest circle cutter for the base, use the next size down, or the base of the hat will be out of proportion to the point.

To make the point of the hat, take a piece of tortilla wrap, and using your largest cutter, cut out a circle from it.  Slice it into two, making one piece slightly bigger than the other (see below).  Take the bigger piece, and with the flat edge at the top, bend the two corners towards each other. Pull together tightly to make a cone, stick the overlapping pieces together with peanut butter or another edible ‘glue’ (see tips above) and pop on top of your round sandwich to turn it into a hat.  I decorated my hat with a piece of a Bear yoyo (dried fruit strip) which I also glued on with peanut butter, and scattered over star shaped sprinkles.

Owl – This Sandwich looks more complicated to make than it actually is!  I think brown bread works particularly well for this, but you could use any bread.  To make, first cut two circles from your bread using your largest circle cutter.

Using a smaller circle cutter, cut a piece from the top of one of the bread circles.  Repeat with the second circle of bread, placing the first piece on top as a guide. Put the two pieces together and fill to make your sandwich.  Using your smallest circle cutter, cut out a piece of ham for the owl’s tummy.  Assemble, using the two extra pieces of bread as wings (you may need to trim these down slightly using the smallest circle cutter.  Finish with edible eyes and cut a piece of carrot into a triangle for the beak.

Mini Boo! Sandwiches – These were very quick and simple to make.  I used my favourite alphabet cutters for these, but you could probably also give them a go using mini circle cutters and a sharp knife. To make, start by cutting out 6 smallish circles of bread. Cut the letters ‘BOO’ into three of the bread circles, making sure you hang onto the bread ‘middles’ of the letters.  Make up your sandwich with a brightly coloured filling – I used slices of red Leicester cheese, which I cut into circles using the same circle cutter I’d used for the bread.  Add a toy spider to the plate for extra Halloween creepiness (optional)!

Ghost – Probably the easiest sandwich to make, this is simply a circle sandwich with added eyes and a mouth cut from strips of Bear yoyo (dried fruit strip) using mini circle cutters (and an oval cutter for the mouth).   I did find that the Bear yoyos were too narrow for the circle cutters I wanted to use, so I tore two small strips off and stuck them together to make a wider strip before cutting.  You could make this sandwich in any size – lots of mini versions of this one would be quick and easy to make for a Halloween party!

Fairy Bread Spider – Last but not least I made a spooky version of ‘fairy bread’, which is quite simply a sandwich with a shape cut from the top piece using a cookie cutter, and sprinkles added to the filling.  You need to use a spreadable filling for fairy bread, so that the sprinkles have something to stick to.  This sandwich was made to be eaten at home, so I used peanut butter, but any other spreadable filling would also work.  I used Red Non-Pareils for my sprinkles (I bought them because they’ll come in useful for Christmas lunches too!) but any colour or type of sprinkle would work.  After I’d finished all the sandwiches and photos for this blog post I then found some sprinkles in Halloween colours (orange and black) in Asda, so it might be worth checking your local supermarket for Halloween sprinkles!  I used a spider shaped cutter and added edible icing eyes.  I finished the sandwich off with a line of web drawn on with an edible marker pen.  You could also use any other shaped cookie cutter you like to make your own fairy bread sandwich.

That’s it for now, I hope you’ve enjoyed my Halloween Sandwiches!

Which is your favourite? Do let me know via the comments below if you try out any yourself!

Grace