Creep it real this spooky season with Halloween Spider Cookies, a fun and festive treat that's as delicious as it is spooky. Made with simple ingredients and a creepy-cute design, these cookies are sure to be a hit at any Halloween party.
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Why This Recipe Works:
Crowd-Pleasing: Both kids and adults will love these festive cookies.
Fun: The spider design adds a playful and spooky touch.
Simple: Uses my easy recipe for chocolate sugar cookies and tasty vanilla buttercream for a delicious and fun combo!
Double Fun: I also use this same cookie dough for my Black Cat Cookies! Make some of those while you are at it.
Looking for more fun Halloween Cookies? Check out my Halloween Oreo Cookies and this Halloween Cookies Roundup with so many fun and tasty ideas!
What You Need for This Recipe
- Dark Cocoa Powder: This gives the chocolate cookies it's near black color! Using regular cocoa powder will result in brown cookies, which is fun too!
- Cinnamon: This adds just a hint of flavor and is really tasty.
- Brown Sugar: Use light or dark brown.
- Espresso Powder: This deepens the chocolate flavor.
- Frosting: Using a colored spin on my classic buttercream frosting- all you need is a few ingredients and some orange food coloring gel!
- Spider Decorations: These cookies are decorated with black food gel icing to make the spider web (you can also use black frosting), Lindor Chocolates as the spider body, Chocolate Covered Blueberries or Whoppers as the spider head, and little chocolate frosting as the legs!
Substitutions for Halloween Spider Cookies
Cookie: Use any favorite cookie recipe! A traditional sugar cookie, chocolate chip cookie, or these chocolate pudding cookies work great and are tasty too!
Frosting: You can save a little of the white buttercream before dying it orange and add cocoa powder to dye it brown for the spider legs, or go the easy route and just buy a small tub of chocolate frosting from the store since you don't need a lot!
Black Gel Spider Web: The black gel doesn't set up, which can be messy! Simply swap it with some store-bought black frosting for a less messy cookie.
Throwing a Halloween party? These spider cookies pair great with my Spiderweb Brownies and Halloween Popcorn Balls!
How to Make Halloween Spider Cookies
- Step 1: Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
- Step 2: In a separate bowl, combine butter and sugars. Then mix in the vanilla, egg, and yolk. Combine espresso powder and warm water, and then mix in too.
- Step 3: Combine both the wet and dry ingredients to form a dough.
- Step 4: Roll rounded tablespoonfuls of dough in sugar, then place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Slightly flatten each cookie with the bottom of a bowl or cup.
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- Step 5: Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350°F, then let cool completely.
- Step 6: Whip up a batch of vanilla buttercream and color it orange, and then frost the cookies.
- Step 1: Using the black gel, pipe three concentric circles on each cookie.
- Step 2: Using a toothpick, drag a line through the circles from the center out.
- Step 3: Add a Lindor truffle, a chocolate-covered blueberry, and pipe on some legs using the chocolate frosting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! Any favorite round cookie recipe will work great!
Food gel is easy but never dries.
If you want something that will set up, I recommend making black buttercream. You can make a half batch of my dark chocolate buttercream, add black food gel coloring to half of it, use the black for the webs, and the brown for the spider legs.
Alternatively, you can buy black and brown frosting from the store.
Homemade tastes so much better than store-bought. That being said, I did use store-bought chocolate frosting for the spider legs on these cookies because I only needed a very little.
For the orange frosting, I recommend making it since it tastes so much better and it's more cost-effective. that being said, you can absolutely buy and use Orange frosting from the store.
Store cookies in a single layer (do not stack) in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Eat within 3-4 days for optimal freshness.
More Halloween Treats
If you like these Halloween Spider Cookies, make sure to check out all my easy Halloween Treats like Halloween Rice Crispy Treats, Halloween Pretzel Rods, Cauldron Cocktail, Witches Fingers, and these Halloween Cupcakes
If you like this recipe, make sure to give it a 5-star review and leave a comment down below!
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Video
Halloween Spider Cookies
Ingredients
Chocolate Sugar Cookies
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup dark cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 14 tbs unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- ¾ cup sugar plus more for rolling
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder*
- 1.5 tablespoon warm water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
Orange Buttercream
- ½ cup butter room temperature
- 5-7 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbs vanilla
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- Pinch salt
- Neon Orange food gel coloring
Other Items
- Black sparkle edible gel* or black frosting
- ½ cup chocolate frosting store-bought or homemade
- 24 lindor dark chocolate truffle
- 24 chocolate covered blueberries or whoppers
- Toothpick
Instructions
Chocolate Sugar Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick mats.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.2 cups all-purpose flour, ¾ cup dark cocoa powder, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- In a different large bowl, beat together the melted butter, brown sugar, and sugar. Mix in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk. Stir together the espresso powder and warm water, then mix it into the batter as well.14 tbs unsalted butter, 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar, ¾ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon espresso powder*, 1.5 tablespoon warm water, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 egg, 1 egg yolk
- Slowly add the flour mixture, and stir until completely combined.
- Scoop rounded tablespoonfuls of the dough into your hands and roll into balls. Then roll each ball in sugar to coat it completely. Place on your baking sheet, and press down each dough ball slightly with the bottom of a glass. Space each cookie about 2-3 inches apart.
- Bake until the cookies are set and have cracks on the edges and top, 8-10 minutes. Then allow to cool completely.
Orange Buttercream:
- In a mixer, whip the butter until it is fluffy. Add in the vanilla and salt and mix until combined.½ cup butter, 1 tbs vanilla, Pinch salt
- Add in powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream. Alternating between the two. I like to add 1 cup of powdered sugar, followed by 2 tablespoon of heavy whipping cream, let it combine, and then add the next round of powdered sugar and heavy cream.5-7 cups powdered sugar, ¾ cup heavy cream
- Once everything is added, mix on high for 20-30 seconds. Then add in the orange food gel and mix on medium-low until full incorporated.Neon Orange food gel coloring
Decorating
- To decorate, simply frost a nice layer of the orange buttercream onto each cookie.
- Then make a web by using the black gel/black frosting to make three circles, and then drag a toothpick from the center out, crossing the black lines, creating a web effect.Black sparkle edible gel*, Toothpick
- Place a Lindor truffle in the center of the web and add a chocolate-covered blueberry for the head.24 lindor dark chocolate truffle, 24 chocolate covered blueberries
- Using the chocolate frosting and a piping bag or a little baggie with a corner cut off, pipe on the 8 spider legs. Then serve and enjoy!½ cup chocolate frosting
Notes
- If you don't have espresso powder for the cookies, you can use coffee instead or just omit it altogether.
- I bought the black food gel at my local grocery store, but you can use black frosting as well. Black frosting will set up, but gel won't and is messier. You can also use a piping bag with a writing tip for finer lines.
- I did use chocolate frosting from the store for this since I knew I wasn't using a ton of the frosting and didn't feel like making my own. However, whip up a half batch of my chocolate frosting if you want homemade.
- Nutrition info will be off due to the amount of frosting you use to frost the cookies, which will vary, and doesn't account for the Lindor Truffle or chocolate-covered blueberry/whopper.
Lisa Killian says
I love these cookies! They are so fun for Halloween and taste good too!