Easy Peanut Butter Spider Cookies for Halloween
Looking for a fun and easy Halloween treat? These peanut butter spider cookies are perfect! They are simple to make, and everyone will love them. Follow these easy instructions to create these creepy crawlers for your next party or potluck.
These easy spider cookies start with a store-bought peanut butter cookie mix and a bag of Whoppers candy. That’s it! Just bake the cookies, add some melted chocolate for the legs, and voila! You’ve got a fun and festive Halloween treat.
Spooky Spider Halloween Cookies with Whoppers
Fall is all about fun, and spooky Halloween treats in our house.
One of our favorite fall traditions are Halloween movie nights.
We start the night in the kitchen, and the kids get to help make a fun Halloween treat. Then we all hop on the couch and enjoy our snacks while we watch a family-friendly Halloween movie.
This year, we decided to make peanut butter spider cookies and they turned out great!
They are so easy to make and only require a few ingredients.
Here’s what you need:
- Peanut butter cookies (homemade, semi-homemade, or store-bought)
- Whoppers Malted Milk Balls Candy
- Chocolate Chips or Chocolate Candy Melts
- Candy Eyeballs (optional)
Get the kids involved:
Once you open the bag of Whoppers, you will notice they are not all the same size. Kids can easily sort them into “smaller Whoppers” and “larger Whoppers.”
This step isn’t essential, but it’s a great way to keep them busy, and then you can use the small Whoppers for the heads and the large ones for the bodies of the spiders.
And that’s it! Just a few steps make this edible craftivity perfect for kids to make or super easy for you to put together for a Halloween party or movie night.
Ingredients and Supplies
If you have followed me for a while, you know that I am absolutely obsessed with any hack, tip, or trick that makes life easier.
This is especially true when it comes to cooking and baking. If there is a shortcut, I am going to use it.
In the case of these adorable peanut butter spider cookies, that means that I am not ashamed to cut corners.
The directions below call for using a bag of Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix, but you could definitely use any premade, storebought cookie of your choice.
Likewise, you can also make them entirely from scratch if you like – you do, you boo! (Ha, get it – BOO – 👻)
I love using the pre-bagged mix because I’ve used it a million times, and I know it makes delicious and chewy peanut butter cookies.
More Halloween Ideas and Recipes:
If using the bagged mix as I did, you will need the following ingredients:
- 1 (17.5 oz) Bag Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix
- 3 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 1 Tbsp Water
- 1 Egg
You will also need the following supplies for decorating
- Small, microwave-safe bowl
- Plastic sandwich bag (for piping the spider legs and “gluing” the Whoppers)
- Scissors (for turning the Ziploc bag into a piping bag)
Instructions:
Step One: Bake the Cookies
If you plan to bake your own cookies, simply follow the recipe or, in this case, the directions on the package.
- For the Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix, you will stir the cookie mix, oil, water, and egg in a medium bowl until the dough forms.
- Next, you will scoop and roll the dough into balls.
For consistently sized cookies, I recommend using a cookie scoop. This will really come in handy if you are making these with kids. We used a 1 Tbsp cookie scoop, but you could easily use a measuring spoon and roll them into 1-inch balls.
- For baking, pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees and place the cookies a couple of inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edge of the cookie just begins to turn golden brown.
Mom tip: Use parchment paper sheets to prevent cookies from sticking to the pan.
- Finally, allow the cookies to cool for 2 minutes before removing them from the cookie sheet. Place them on a wire rack to cool until they are at room temperature. You definitely want them cooled before you begin to decorate.
If you are using store-bought cookies, we recommend using the soft peanut butter cookies you can find in the bakery section of your grocery store for this recipe.
Step Two: Time to Decorate the Spider Cookies
Once the cookies are completely cooled, it’s time to add the legs.
- Add 1/2 cup chocolate chips or candy melts to the microwave-safe bowl.
- Heat for 20 to 30-second intervals. Stopping to stir the chocolate each time to see if you need to heat it again.
- Spoon the melted chocolate into the plastic sandwich bag. Using scissors, snip off a very small piece of the corner of the bag to allow you to pipe a thin line as you draw the legs.
- Since you are also using the melted chocolate to attach the Whoppers to form the spider’s head and body, you can place a generous blob in the middle, then draw four legs on each side.