If Halloween ghosts and witches feel a little too dark or spooky for your kids (or you!), consider the monster instead. As we were working on our list of the top 10 classic Halloween treats of all time, paging through 50 years of women’s magazines, these monstrous pretzel fingers came up over and over again. Is this the year you finally make them? Yes!

Party pretzels have shown up across magazines for ages, but really burst onto the scene with Pinterest in the 2000s. But a monster is always a good entryway for Halloween; it’s a little less spooky, and a little more colorful.

The trick for super-easy Frankenstein fingers

These are easy treats — just melt some white chocolate with food coloring, and dip away. The secret to getting a good coating on your chocolate is moving the melted white chocolate chips to a tall, narrow drinking glass; use the side of the glass to guide the chocolate up the pretzel rod and use the edge to wipe away excess coating.

Frankenstein fingers are also surprisingly delicious and grown-up-friendly. The pretzel rod with white chocolate crunch is a delightful monster mash-up of sweet and salty flavors. Plus you can carry a Frankenstein finger in one hand and a Halloween punch in the other.

Frankenstein Fingers Halloween Pretzels

Makes 24

1 (11-ounce) bag white chocolate chips, about 2 1/4 cups

3 drops red food coloring (optional)

3 drops green food coloring (optional)

24 pretzel rods

1/4 cup toasted almond slivers or 1 (1-ounce) package candy eyes

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high, stirring in 30-second intervals, until melted, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes total. Stir in the red and green food coloring, if using, to dye the white chocolate dark green.

2. Pour the melted chocolate into a tall drinking glass. Dip each pretzel rod into the glass of melted white chocolate and twirl to coat, being sure to cover about 2/3 of the rod (but leaving some pretzel uncovered as a handle). Remove the pretzel, gently shaking to remove excess, and transfer to prepared sheet. Add an almond sliver or candy eye to each pretzel at its very tip to resemble a fingernail or monster.

(Meghan Splawn was the food editor for Skills content for TheKitchn.com, a nationally known blog for people who love food and home cooking. Submit any comments or questions to editorial@thekitchn.com.)

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