Peanut Butter Spider Cookies

For Family Night last night, we rolled back the clock a few years—quite a few and made some treats that were more typical in our kitchen a decade ago. I saw the idea, forgot where I saw it, and so we made these treats off of what I thought they might be. Funny enough, then I remembered where I’d seen the idea (typical day in my 40s) and had made them as I remembered—they really are that simple ;)
Here is the link:


Peanut Butter Spider Cookies

Ingredients
1 pouch Betty Crocker® peanut butter cookie mix
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
1 egg
36 chewy caramels in milk chocolate
Black or red string licorice
1/3 cup (72) miniature candy-coated chocolate baking bits
Betty Crocker® black decorating gel (from 0.68-oz tube)
Directions
Heat oven to 375°F. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, oil, water and egg until dough forms.
Shape dough into 36 (1-inch) balls. On ungreased cookie sheets, place 2 inches apart.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately press 1 chewy caramel in center of each cookie. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.
Cut licorice into 8 (2-inch) pieces for each spider. Attach legs by sticking into chewy caramel. Use baking bits for eyes and black gel to make pupils in eyes.

We also made a batch with miniature Reese's.

Simple and cute- just like Halloween a decade ago.

We combined some of the most recent treats we’ve made and put together a plate of “Spider Infested Corn”.

Halloween Spider Cookies- Simplified

We had a grand family weekend. My husband and I took Y and J to a college football game. We parked about a mile from the stadium and walked toward the stadium amongst a sea of home team orange and black. We were there to cheer on our Alma mater, the visiting team. Nevertheless, it was a thrill to feel the energy of a college town erupting in game day- home town pride.
I delighted in walking past tent after tent of tailgaters. I quickly scanned the menu at each private party and noted there was little variation from hamburgers, hotdogs, and chips. One tent had a notably large stack of leftover brownies. As we were nearing the stadium, the crowd still tailgating at this tent was small. I thought about asking for a brownie-- but the closer I got, the more I realized they looked a little dry ;)
All the way home from the game I thought about warm pulled pork, bacon BBQ chicken, and seasoned brisket sandwiches.
We arrived home happy for our opportunity, but a little worn out. So my efforts for today's treat are a simplified version of these spider cookies.

The ideas are similar.
Take two cookies (I used Famous Amos Chocolate Chip and Oreos), frost each side, lay "spider legs" (string licorice) in frosting and put frosting sides together to form a cookie sandwich. Attach "eyes (mini M&Ms) with a frosting dot.

Share and scare!!

Double Chocolate Halloween Spider Cookies

I watched a short home video last night of when the boys were 2 and 4. The footage was taken shortly before we embarked on an adventure to move out east outside of the Washington D. C. area. They were playing with the neighbor kids.
Back when I lived in a neighborhood with young kids, I used to make a greater effort with special holiday baking- especially for holidays like Halloween. This year, despite my kids being older, I'm bringing out some recipes I haven't made in a lot of years and some new ones I've recently seen.
The fall we moved out east was filled with transitions. The kids had to transition from having friends and neighbors to play with to spending more time with just each other. They did this well. B took the lead and Y was happy to follow along. B would ask "Do you wanna play cars?"
Y always answered with an enthusiastic "yeah!!" usually while extending both arms in the air.
No matter what B would choose for an activity, Y would follow along. Y was B's wing-man, his shadow...even his Robin...So it fits that they were Batman and Robin for Halloween.
Get your kids, friends and neighbors excited for Halloween this year by making these Spider Cookies.

Double Chocolate Spider Cookies

Begin by making a double batch of Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies. I omitted the chocolate chips.

While they are cooling, dip a pretzel stick 3/4 of the way into melted chocolate. Tap gently and lay on waxed paper to set.

For assembly:
Frost the bottoms of the entire double batch of cookies.
Then place 8 spider legs (dipped pretzel sticks) -non-chocolate end in the frosted side of a cookie.
Put another frosted cookie (frosting side down) on top to form a sandwich cookie.
Finish with mini M&Ms for eyes on a dot of frosting.