Chocolaty, single-serving-sized, made-from-scratch Ghosts in the Graveyard Treats.
We had a long, dreary, very gray and very rainy weekend.
There were some bright spots, though. My family celebrated my sister’s 21st birthday (which included a 3 hour wait for all 11 of us to eat at The Cheesecake Factory — this is where I would insert a shocked-face emoji right now, if I could), the sun came out just long enough to take the dogs for a nice long walk, and Zach and I finished the first season of Stranger Things (cannot wait for season 2!).
Caught up in the gloomy fall weather and feeling a little partial to the paranormal (thanks to Stranger Things), I thought a Ghosts in the Graveyard dessert would be appropriate, especially with Halloween a mere 28 days away.
My mom used to make “Ghosts in the Graveyard” when I was a kid, but it was done a little differently. The classic dessert is made in a 13×9 pan (at least, it was in our house), the graveyard constructed of pudding and topped with cookie crumbs, cookie tombstones, and ghosts.
I remember planting the Milano cookies in the pudding and then strategically carving out my slice of the “graveyard” so that I got both tombstone and ghost.
Given my affinity for mini desserts, and especially for dessert shooters, I individualized the dessert into adorable single-serving-sized portions.
I made these treats from scratch mimicking the same chocolate filling that I used for my sister’s birthday pie, only using a heavier portion of chocolate and stirring in crumbled Oreos for a “dirtier” look.
It may seem like a lot of steps because you have to melt the chocolate separately, wait for it to cool, and whip the heavy cream at two different points, but it’s really pretty simple for a from-scratch dessert. It’s worth every extra dish, but I also included notes in case you wanted to speed things up a bit and substitute Cool Whip.
Enjoy (and try not to look to closely at my ghosts in the background, they are sad specimen indeed)!
Ghosts in the Graveyard Dessert Shooters
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 cup chocolate chips 175g
- 2 cups heavy cream divided (474 ml)
- 8 oz cream cheese softened (227g)
- 28 Oreo Cookies pulverized in food processor
- 1 cup powdered sugar 200g
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whipped Cream Ghosts**
- 1 cup heavy cream (237ml)
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar (150g)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Other optional toppings
- 12 Milano sandwich cookies
- 1 tube Black premade frosting for writing
Instructions
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In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of the heavy cream over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until chocolate chips are completely melted and mixture is smooth.
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Remove from heat and pour into a heatproof bowl. Stir in vanilla extract.
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Allow mixture to cool completely before continuing.
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In a clean, medium-sized bowl, use an electric mixer to beat remaining 1 1/2 cups heavy cream to stiff peaks. Set aside.
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In bowl of stand mixer, combine cream cheese and (cooled) chocolate mixture, stirring until completely combined.
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Gradually add powdered sugar until completely combined. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
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Stir in vanilla extract and 1 1/2 cups of the Oreo crumbs (reserve remaining crumbs to sprinkle over tops of shooters).
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Fold in whipped cream and then stir on low-speed until completely combined.
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Set out 24 disposable shot glasses.
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Pour mixture into large Ziploc bag, snip off one corner and pipe filling into shot glasses, filling about 3/4 full.
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Cover tops of each shooter with remaining Oreo crumbs.
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Prepare Milano cookies buy using black frosting to write "RIP" on upper half of cookie.
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Press Milano cookies firmly into half of the shooters so that only the half of the cookie reading "RIP" is protruding (like tombstones).
Ghosts
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Prepare whipped cream ghosts by combining heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla in clean medium-sized bowl and whisking until stiff peaks form. (You may instead skip this step and use Cool Whip).
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Pour whipped cream (or Cool Whip)into large piping bag fitted with a large round tip and pipe ghost-shaped swirls on top of the remaininghalf of dessert shooters.
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Use black frosting to gently draw eyes and mouths on ghosts
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Serve & enjoy!
Recipe Notes
I ALWAYS BUY MY SHOT GLASSES HERE FROM AMAZON (affiliate link) *You may substitute 12 oz of Cool Whip for the 1 1/2 cups whipped heavy cream in the filling (you will still need the 1/2 cup for melting with the chocolate). **You can substitute additional Cool Whip to make these ghosts, if you prefer. This recipe makes enough for about 10-12 ghosts and is assuming you will top the rest of the shooters with cookie tombstones. You may double the recipe if you would like them all to be topped with ghosts.This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase anything through these links I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please view the disclosure policy for more information.
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These shooters are adorable and oh so festive! Loving the whipped cream 🙂
Thanks so much, Medha! 🙂
I love this presentation! Sooo creative! Great job!
Thank you so much, Megan! 🙂
You are so creative!
Thank you! 🙂
I just love how much fun this display is! Your presentation is top-notch! Keep those creative juices flowing!
Thank you so much Renee, you are so kind! 🙂
I want all the whipped cream ghosts!!!
HI! Love everything about this. Where did you get the little flowers and mini pumpkins?
Thank you! I bought the mini pumpkins from my local cake shop, they were sugar candy decorations, but I think if you were to buy some of those Brach’s mallowcream pumpkins (the kind you can get in the candy corn “autumn mix” bags) they would look super cute, too! For the flowers I just bought a bouquet from my local grocery store that had springs with small flowers in them, mine weren’t edible so they had to be removed before eating. Hope that helps!
Do they have to be kept cold? Want to make them for my kids’ class party. Super cute!!
Hi Heather! Yes, they should be kept cold. They won’t melt though and can be left out for a while (I wouldn’t leave out longer than 2 hours max). I’d put the ghosts on just before serving, or use storebought Cool Whip which will hold its shape a bit better for extended periods of time. Hope that helps!
So excited to make these for my work Halloween party on Monday!!! Can I make the filing the night before and pipe it into the shooters the day of? Also, any good ideas on transporting the shooters?? Thanks:)!!!
Yes, you can definitely do that! The filling gets a little firm when chilled, so you may have to work it in the piping bag with your hands a bit to make it easier to pipe, but I have done this and it’s fine. The only way I’ve transported them is to fit them snugly in a tupperware or one of those disposable foil cake carriers, packing them in tight enough that they are all supporting one another (I hope that makes sense!). However, if you’re planning on making the filling in advance, it may just be easier to bring the shot glasses, filling, crumbs and toppers separately and assemble everything at your work, then you don’t have to worry about any of them falling over. I hope this helps!
Thanks so much for your response – I’ll try one of those ideas for transport 🙂 can’t wait to taste them; I love Oreos so I’m pretty excited, haha.
Of course! I hope you love them 🙂