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.
Ry decorating cookies 
Ari decorating cookies 
Melted chocolate and sprinkles 
Smaller cookies – Spider Cookies
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)
Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy22
servings20
minutes20
minutes30
minutes1
hour10
minutesA 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!
These tarantula cookies are so cool and are fun to look at!
I also baked some cookies today for my kids?maybe they would also appreciate this!
Thank you! They are super fun to make! I hope your kiddos like them! ? ?
That’s a fun idea.
Thanks! It was fun! ?
Children will
Love those spider cookies!
Thank you! ?
wow! this likes such a fun idea. I will have to try this
Thanks! I hope you like it!
thanks
These are really cute and not too scary!
Thank you! They are fun to make! ?
This is such a cute idea!!! I’ll definitely be trying it out!
Thanks Katie! I hope you like them ??
This is so cute! Can I reblog this?
Thank you! And of course! Thanks for sharing! ??
Wonderful!!
Love it. Your spider ?? cookies truly take halloween to the next level. ?
Thank you so much! ?
These look great! Spooky and tasty at the same time! I also like the combination of sweet and savoury! Thanks for sharing 🙂
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.??
Sorry this went to spam! I understand! I am deathly afraid of mice!!
It’s so fun to eat like this. Wanna eat this?
Thank you! ? it was fun and delicious!
These are adorable!!! Definitely going to make these with my kiddos!
Thank you! I hope you and kiddos have a blast making them! ??
Hey that’s fun thing for kids!
thank you! So much fun ?