Peanut Butter Spider Cookies

Today’s Best Recipe is Easy Peanut Butter Spider Cookies.

 

It starts with the simplest peanut butter cookie recipe and then some candy garnish and a little piping of icing, and you have the most adorable little spider cookies.

 

They are so easy!

 

It’s the cookies we made in 7th grade home economics class.

 

They are so quick and easy to make!

 

Just 10 minutes prep and 10 minutes in the oven, you have a wonderful batch of yummy homemade peanut butter cookies to eat.

 

Add a few candy embellishments, and you have a great-tasting cookie and a fun Halloween-themed Peanut Butter Spider Cookie!

 

These spider cookies would be festive on a party table or a great activity for party guests to decorate at the party.

 

You might also like this Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe, it’s my favorite but requires more than three ingredients.

Browse all of our Halloween recipes right here. There’s something frightfully fun in the mix to make your dinner or seasonal festivities special.

You may also want to check out my Pinterest Halloween Food board for more great recipes like these easy spider peanut butter cookies!

• 1 cup Peanut Butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg

• Peanut butter: Use smooth peanut butter for the best results. If you want a more firm cookie, avoid the natural peanut butter you have to work the oil into as the cookies tend to spread more and the additional oil makes them a bit more crispy. 
• Don’t use crunchy peanut butter. I mean, you can, but for me, the dough is too crumbly and doesn’t yield the best cookies.
• Granulated sugar: Granulated sugar is the sweetest part of the cookie! It also carmelizes during baking to help the cookies brown. 
• Egg: Use fresh eggs. You can check if an egg is fresh by placing it in a bowl of water. If it sinks it is good to use.  

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• While oven heats, in a medium mixing bowl, or stand mixer bowl, add all three ingredients.
• By hand, with a hand mixer or stand mixer, mix all ingredients until the cookie dough mixture is soft and moist and the ingredients are combined.

• Scoop the cookie dough into small balls and place them on a lined or greased baking sheet. If you are a perfectionist, each ball should weigh 34 grams for uniform size and shape.

• Use the bottom of a glass to flatten the cookies gently. 
• If you are making traditional peanut butter cookies, you will use the back of a fork to press down and crisis cross lines for the iconic peanut butter cookies—For the spider cookies, you will instead, use a Tablespoon and use the rounded side to press into the center of the cookie to make a “bowl.” 
• Bake the cookies in the preheated oven on the center rack for 8-10 minutes.
• Remove immediately from the baking sheet and place it on a wired baking rack.

Don’t over-bake the cookies. Check on them after 8 minutes, and if the edges start to turn golden, you know they’re done. Leaving the cookies on the hot baking sheet will continue to cook them, overbaking them.

Add the Spider Embellishment:

Once the peanut butter cookies have cooled, fill the “bowl” in the center of the cookie with chocolate frosting or ganache.

Place frosting in a Ziploc bag and cut the corner, and pipe four lines on each side of the “bowl” for a total of eight “legs”

Next, add two malted chocolate balls to the center of the spider’s body.

Finish by piping two small dots of chocolate icing on the front of one malted chocolate ball and press on the candy eyes.

Storage Tip:

Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to five days.

Add a slice of bread to the container with the cookies, which will keep them soft and chewy. 

You can freeze the baked cookies for up to 3 months.

Place them on a baking sheet in the freezer until they are completely frozen.

Then transfer them to freezer bags or an airtight container.

To reheat the frozen cookies, bake them in a 350°F oven for 5 minutes, or until warmed through.

Busy Schedule?

You can make the peanut butter cookie dough ahead of time, wrap it tightly in plastic, and place it in the freezer. I usually make the cookie balls, place them on a baking sheet in the freezer until they are firm, and then place the balls, by the dozen, in resealable bags with the oven temperature and time written on them so we can pull a bag out and make cookies after dinner without effort.