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Fall Sweets

Easy Halloween Spider Cookies (Tarantula Cookies)

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Blog #131: Every Halloween we bake spider cookies as a family. A tradition that started when the boys were preschoolers. It’s fun that we are still carrying out the tradition years later. I found this recipe on Epicurious. On the website it is listed as tarantula cookies. Since then I have changed it up a bit.

Type of Cookie Dough

The original recipe calls for a chocolate cookie dough, which I found too sweet with melted chocolate and chocolate sprinkles. Even though I am a chocolate lover! You may use any cookie dough you’d like for this recipe. Anything that goes well with chocolate. I stick with chocolate chip cookie dough. Although chocolate peanut butter and sugar cookie dough works, as well!

You will need:
  • 15 oz of your favorite cookie dough (or 30 oz for larger cookies)
  • 11.5 oz bag of chocolate chips
  • Chocolate sprinkles
  • Red hard candies
  • Pretzel sticks

Bake cookies per instructions. Smaller cookies – 12-15 minutes and larger cookies 17-20 minutes. My favorite cookie is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Make it Your Own

Every year I make smaller cookies, but this year decided on making larger cookies, just because. With the 30 oz cookie dough I was able to make 22 cookies.

For the Kids

My boys love these cookies! I bake them in the morning and let them cool. We go pumpkin picking and later that night we get to decorating. I melt the chocolate and spread the chocolate over each cookie and pretzel “legs” and I set 2 trays for the boys. They add the sprinkles and the eyes. This year they wanted to add different color eyes to their spiders. And so we used skittles. It’s all for the boys! Not every cookie and spider “legs” are covered in chocolate or sprinkles. However, the cookies turn out delicious and turn out super cute! The memories we create every year! Gotta love it!

Once the cookies are decorated I stick them in the fridge to let the chocolate harden. We watch a halloween movie while we have dinner and then spider cookies for dessert!

Easy Halloween Spider Cookies (Tarantula Cookies)

Recipe by Azilde ElizabethCourse: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy
Servings

22

servings
Prep time

20

minutes
Baking Time

20

minutes
Cooling Time

30

minutes
Total time

1

hour 

10

minutes

A fun halloween treat to make with your kids!

Ingredients

  • 30 oz chocolate chip cookie dough

  • Bag of Pretzel Sticks (8 oz with pretzels leftover)

  • 11.5 oz of chocolate chips

  • 10.5 oz of chocolate sprinkles

  • Red candies (skittles or m&ms work too!)

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Roll cookie dough into 22 large balls and stick 3 pretzel sticks on each side. Bake 8 cookies at a time so the pretzel legs don’t spread onto the pretzels. Bake for 20 minutes.
  • After a minute or so remove cookies and put on a cooling rack.
  • After cookies are completely cool (I let them cool for at least 30 minutes) start melting the chocolate. I use the double boiler method. or you can use the microwave.
  • Spread chocolate on each cookie or dip* the cookie into the melted chocolate. Add sprinkles and eyes.
  • Put cookies in fridge and wait for the chocolate to harden – about an hour and serve!

Notes

  • If you decide to dip the cookie into the chocolate I recommend a larger bag of chocolate chips. This ensures a large bowl of chocolate for the cookie to “swim” in for a quick dip!

There are many things to do this halloween even though trick or treating has been cancelled! Here are some more ideas!

DO you bake Halloween treats?

Enjoy!

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28 thoughts on “Easy Halloween Spider Cookies (Tarantula Cookies)

  1. It looks amazing.??????

    …… Also horrible. Perfect for Halloween.

    But I can’t eat this. Even it’s hard for me make this. Spiders and lizards always scares me to death.??

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