Peanut Butter Spider Cookies

Kids love these Peanut Butter Spider Cookies because they are super fun and easy to make, taste great, and are the perfect Halloween treat.

I love making cookies. I love eating cookies even more than I love making them. Every year around Christmas time I go on a Christmas cookie making extravaganza and make dozens and dozens of cookies of all varieties to ship off to my family, including my 98-year-old grandfather!  These peanut butter chocolate cookies are almost always in there because they’re easy to make and everyone’s favorite cookie of the bunch. I’ve been making them for so long, I can’t even remember where I originally found the recipe, but its definitely a keeper and they always turn out perfectly.

The dough just takes a few minutes to mix up. Then comes the fun part – rolling it into balls. Because I’m a little OCD about having all of my cookies be the same size, I used my small cookie scoop and made each ball a level scoop before rolling. Not only did this make the cookies all the same size for even cooking, but it made it so that I got an exact 4 dozen out of the batch (plus the bit of dough at the end that I couldn’t help tasting).

 MY OTHER RECIPES

I always bake these cookies exactly 8 minutes. Your oven time may vary, but that’s the sweet spot for my oven.

Then, as soon as you take them out of the oven, you press the peanut butter cups into the top of the cookie. When I make these during the Christmas holiday, I put the peanut butter cups in the right way and press them all the way down to make the tops even with the cookie. But because I knew I wanted to add legs to make spiders, I turned those peanut butter cups upside down and didn’t press them in all the way.

Once the cookies have cooled, you’re going to pipe the chocolate peanut butter legs on. This took me a bit of practice, plus the temperature of the chocolate will determine whether you get skinny or fat legs. Don’t worry though – if any of them turn out ugly, you get a free pass to eat them right then and their. I can justify most things, as you might learn, from reading my blog!

These cookies are insanely tasty.

My kids were so excited when they came home and saw these. I pretty much won the “coolest mom” award for the day. They packaged them up and brought them in for their teachers the next day.

This recipe uses pure vanilla extract. Did you know you can make your own homemade vanilla extract? It makes the perfect gift too. Watch how in the video below.

4.0 from 1 reviews

Peanut Butter Spider Cookies

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

8 mins

Total time

23 mins

 

Kids love these Peanut Butter Spider Cookies because they are super fun and easy to make, taste great, and are the perfect Halloween treat.

Author: Krissy Allori

Recipe type: Dessert

Yields: 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 48 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Legs:

• 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.
2. Cream together the peanut butter and butter along with the white and brown sugars until light in color and very fluffy. Stir in the egg, vanilla and milk until well combined.
3. Add the flour mixture and mix just until well combined.
4. I used a small cookie scoop and rolled each level scoop into a ball. Place each dough ball into an ungreased well of a mini muffin pan. You should have just enough batter to make 48 cookies.
5. Bake in preheated oven about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. If you're making spiders, I think its cute to put the peanut butter cup in upside down and not press it in all the way. If you won't be adding legs, you can push it in right side up and press down to make the top even with the cookie. Cool and carefully remove from pan.

Legs:

1. Microwave chocolate chips and peanut butter on 50% power for 2-3 minutes, then stir well. If chips are still not melted, continue to cook in microwave at 50% power in one minute increments until melted. Add to plastic bag and snip off corner to squeeze eight legs onto each cookie. Be sure to pipe legs onto cooled cookies and allow the chocolate to somewhat cool before piping to get your desired thickness. Allow chocolate legs to dry and harden.
2. Store in an airtight container. Can be frozen.

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