These spooky cute Halloween spider cookies are the only creepy crawlers I'll happily let into my house! Made with just 4 ingredients, including storebought cookie dough, mini peanut butter cups, and candy eyes, these easy spider cookies come together fast. They're soft, chewy, and super fun to make with the kids for Halloween classroom parties or as a special dessert before trick or treating.
Jump to:
- 🎃One Of The Easiest Halloween Cookie Ideas Ever
- 🕷️How Kids Can Help Make Peanut Butter Spider Cookies
- 🥘Just 4 Simple Ingredients Needed
- 🔪How To Make Halloween Spider Cookies Easy
- 🌿Healthy Ingredient Substitutions
- 🕷️Easy Spider Cookies Recipe Variations
- 🍽Essential Equipment Needed
- 🍶Storing Halloween Spider Cookies
- ✅Betty's Top Tip: Freeze The Peanut Butter Cups First!
- ❓Halloween Spider Cookies FAQ
- 👻More Easy Halloween Party Treats
- 🍪More Easy Things To Make With Cookie Dough
- 📋Recipe With Step-By-Step Instructions
- 💬 Comments
🎃One Of The Easiest Halloween Cookie Ideas Ever
Most spider cookie recipes you'll find have you mixing and baking a cookie from scratch, but why would you do that? The real fun (and most of the flavor) is in the decorating, so store-bought cookie dough is the way to go here. That means you can skip the mixing bowl and get straight to the good part. With the dough already done, these easy spider cookies come together fast, with plenty of energy left for sticking on candy eyes.
🕷️How Kids Can Help Make Peanut Butter Spider Cookies
Of all the Halloween cookie ideas, this is one of the best for kids to help with. That's becuase the decorating is the fun part!
Little hands can unwrap the mini peanut butter cups, press them into the warm cookies, and stick on the candy eyes. They can also pipe on the chocolate frosting legs. No two spiders will look alike, which only makes them creepier (and cuter). A grown-up should handle the oven, and then you can all sit back and admire your spiders, as long as they stay on the cookie tray and don't walk away 😁.
🥘Just 4 Simple Ingredients Needed
- Peanut butter cookie dough: Using store-bought peanut butter cookie dough provides a quick, soft, and chewy base that makes baking these easy Halloween cookies a breeze.
- Mini Reese's cups: These get pressed directly into the warm baked dough to form the delicious chocolate bodies of our spooky spiders.
- Chocolate decorating icing: Ready-made chocolate decorating icing allows for quick, mess-free piping of the spider legs without the hassle of mixing frosting from scratch.
- Candy eyeballs: Edible candy eyeballs add the perfect creepy-cute finishing touch that brings these fun Halloween spider cookies to life.
See recipe card for quantities.
🔪How To Make Halloween Spider Cookies Easy
Step 1: Arrange cookie dough on baking sheet; bake according to package directions.
Step 2: Allow cookies to slightly cool, then gently press in Reese's cups.
Step 3: After the cookies have completely cooled, attach the eyeballs to the Reese's cups. Squeeze a dot of icing on the back of each eye so that it sticks.
Step 4: Pipe on 8 legs. Allow to set before serving or storing.
For step-by-step instructions, see the printable recipe card below.
Hint: If you don't have a tube of decorating icing, just scoop some chocolate frosting into a zip-top sandwich bag, snip a tiny piece off the bottom corner, and squeeze to pipe on the spider legs!
🌿Healthy Ingredient Substitutions
- Mini peanut butter cups: Trade traditional Reese's for a lower-sugar, organic, or vegan alternative like Justin's or Unreal dark chocolate peanut butter cups.
- Store-bought cookie dough: If you want a quick shortcut but prefer cleaner ingredients, look for healthier refrigerated dough brands like Sweet Loren's (gluten-free and vegan) or Cappello's (grain-free and paleo-friendly) at your local grocery store.
🕷️Easy Spider Cookies Recipe Variations
- Nut-Free Spider Cookies: Since many schools are nut-free, you can easily make these safe for classroom parties. Simply swap the peanut butter dough for sugar cookie dough. You can also use Rolos or plain chocolate truffles instead of Reese's cups.
- Double Chocolate Spiders: For the ultimate chocolate lover, use store-bought double chocolate chunk or brownie cookie dough as the base. The darker background makes the white candy eyes pop even more!
- Chocolate Chip Spider Cookies: If peanut butter isn't your family's favorite, simply swap the base for classic chocolate chip cookie dough and proceed with the same fun spider decorations.
See our Peanut Butter Cup Cookies for another easy recipe with cookie dough and Reese's cups!
🍽Essential Equipment Needed
- large cookie sheet
- wire cooling rack
🍶Storing Halloween Spider Cookies
Allow the peanut butter spider cookies to fully set before transferring to an airtight container. Place a layer of parchment paper between rows to prevent cookies from sticking to each other.
✅Betty's Top Tip: Freeze The Peanut Butter Cups First!
Pop your unwrapped mini Reese's cups into the freezer while the cookies are baking. Pressing chilled chocolate into the warm cookies prevents the peanut butter cups from melting into a messy puddle, helping your spiders keep their perfect shape!
❓Halloween Spider Cookies FAQ
Yes! You can bake and decorate these cookies up to 3 days in advance. Just be sure to let the chocolate icing legs set completely before storing them in an airtight container at room temperature.
If you can't find candy eyes at the store, you can pipe two small dots of white icing onto the peanut butter cup and add a tiny speck of black icing in the center. Alternatively, you can use mini chocolate chips or even cut small pieces of mini marshmallows to use as eyes!
Yes, they freeze wonderfully. Once the icing legs have completely hardened, place the cookies in a freezer-safe container with parchment paper between the layers. They will stay fresh in the freezer for up to 3 months. Just let them thaw at room temperature before serving.
👻More Easy Halloween Party Treats
Looking for more fun halloween cookie ideas and party treats? Try these, or head over to our Holiday Baking page:
🍪More Easy Things To Make With Cookie Dough
Here are more storebought cookie dough recipes like these Halloween Spider Cookies. Find more cookie recipes on our Cookies and Bars page:
📋Recipe With Step-By-Step Instructions
Halloween Spider Cookies
Equipment
- large, rimmed cookie sheet greased or lined with parchment paper
- wire cooling rack
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Ingredients
- 16 oz package refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough (24-count)
- 24 mini Reese's cups
- 48 small candy eyeballs
- 4.25 oz tube chocolate decorating icing
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Arrange cookie dough on cookie sheet and bake according to package directions. Do not overbake; cookies should still be a little soft in the middle when finished for this recipe.
- Allow cookies to cool for two minutes. Then remove from pan and transfer to wire rack. Gently press mini Reese's cup upside down into the middle of each cookie. Allow cookies to cool for 1 hour.
- Once cookies have cooled, squeeze a dot of decorating icing onto the back of each eyeball. Gently press two candy eyeballs close to each other on one ridged side of the peanut butter cup. Then pipe four legs onto each side of the cookie.
- Allow decorated spider cookies to fully set (about 1 hour) before serving or transferring to a storage container.
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that nutritional information is provided by a third party service and is intended for guidance purposes only. KitchenReadyBetty.com makes no claims to its accuracy.
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