Chocolate Cookie Spiders For Halloween
Looking for a last minute Halloween treat that's so cute it's scary? Give these quick Spider Cookies a try using our Skratch Labs Cookie batter! You'll need a couple of special decorating ingredients to make these cookies, namely white frosting and black frosting. If you can't find black frosting, you can use black frosting colors or forego the frosting all together and use candy eyes. You can purchase ready-made white frosting from most grocery stores (they will also sell black frosting.) Well stocked cooking or craft stores will sell candy eyes for decorating, which can be used instead of decorating with frosting. Be very careful when melting the chocolate to make the legs; if you over heat the chocolate it will burn and seize so be gentle, warm it slowly and stir often! Happy Halloween!
Cookie Spiders from Skratch Labs
1 batch Skratch Labs Cookie batter
1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut spread (such as Justin's or Nutella)
1/4 cup cold water
12-15 chocolate malt balls OR round chocolate truffles (such as Lindt)
for eye decorations:
white and black ready-made frosting (available at your grocery store or cooking store) OR black icing color OR 30 candy eyes
1/2 cup chocolate chips (for melting and piping legs)
Prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
Next, mix the cookie dough: in a medium sized bowl, combine the cookie mix, chocolate hazelnut spread and water, mixing with your hands until evenly incorporated.
Scoop the dough out in 2-3 tablespoon increments and roll between your hands to make a nice ball, then place the ball on the prepared cookie sheet. Repeat with all the cookie dough. Then, place the cookie sheet with the little dough balls in the refrigerator to firm up for at least 1 hour. (Chilling the dough keeps the butter cold and prevents your little spider nests from spreading!)
Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Once chilled, remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator and make sure that all the cookies are evenly spaced. Then pop them directly into the oven. Bake the cookies for just 5 minutes, then pull the cookie sheets from the oven and press your thumb into each cookie to make a nice deep indentation. (This is where the little spider head will sit!) Return the cookie sheets to the oven, rotating them, and bake until just barely golden, roughly for another 5-7 minutes.
Allow your cookies to cool for a few minutes, meanwhile, prepare your chocolate malt balls or chocolate truffles. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Place one chocolate truffle into each cookie indentation once the cookies are cool enough to touch, but not so cool that the heat from the cooling cookie won't melt the chocolate layer on the malt ball or truffle (this helps the little spider head stick to the cookie!) Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating the eyes and legs.
Once the cookies are cooled, use a toothpick to poke two holes for the eyes on each of the spider heads. Squeeze two very small white dots of frosting onto each toothpick hole (the toothpick hole helps the frosting to stick in place.) Next, squeeze a small amount of white frosting into a small bowl and with a toothpick, swirl in a very small amount of black frosting color. Using the toothpick, drop a tiny black dot into the center of each white eye. While you let the eyes dry, you can prepare the chocolate for the legs.
Place the 1/4 cup of chocolate into a small bowl and melt in the microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring completely in between each burst. (Be very careful not to make the chocolate too warm as it becomes hard to work with and will burn and firm up! If you swirl the chocolate with a spoon, and the chocolate freely flows off the spoon, you're ready to use it!)
Pour the chocolate into the corner of a piping bag or small plastic bag and then snip off the tip with a scissors. Pipe eight little legs onto each spider cookie by squeezing the chocolate gently out in stripes over the edge of the cookie. Allow the chocolate to set completely, then serve!
