Easy Halloween Cookies with Spider and Bat Decorations Recipe
These Easy Halloween Cookies are festive and fun treats perfect for Halloween celebrations. They feature soft, buttery cookies loaded with chocolate chips, decorated creatively with melted chocolate, royal icing, Maltesers, caramel-filled chocolates, and cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies to look like spiders and bats.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 42 minutes
- Yield: 20 cookies 1x
- Category: Baking
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: British
Ingredients
Scale
Cookie Dough
- 150g butter, softened
- 50g caster sugar
- 100g light brown soft sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 250g plain flour
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 100g milk or dark chocolate chips
Decorations
- 60g dark chocolate, melted
- 60g royal icing sugar, mixed with 2 tsp water
- 20 Maltesers
- 5 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
- 10 caramel-filled chocolates
Instructions
- Preheat and Prepare: Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4, and line two baking sheets with baking parchment to prepare for baking the cookies.
- Make Cookie Dough: Beat the softened butter, caster sugar, and light brown sugar together with an electric whisk until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and egg, beating again until combined. Stir in the plain flour and baking powder with a wooden spoon until a stiff dough forms, then fold in the chocolate chips evenly.
- Shape and Bake Cookies: Divide the dough into 20 equal pieces and roll each into a ball. Place the dough balls well spaced on the prepared baking sheets. Gently press the tops down slightly using the palm of your hand or the bottom of a glass. Bake for 10-12 minutes until cookies are golden at the edges. Leave them to cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
- Decorate Spider Cookies: Lay out 10 cooled cookies. Spoon the melted dark chocolate into a piping bag and royal icing into another, snipping the ends to pipe. Using royal icing, attach two Maltesers on each cookie as the spider’s head and body. Use melted chocolate to pipe eight legs around the Maltesers. Pipe two small dots of royal icing on the Malteser ‘head’ for eyes, then add tiny chocolate dots on these for pupils. Optionally, decorate the spider bodies with royal icing designs.
- Decorate Bat Cookies: Take the remaining 10 cookies and the cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies. Separate and scrape off the cream filling from the sandwich cookies, then cut the cookie halves into semicircles for bat wings. Using royal icing, stick one caramel-filled chocolate in the center of each cookie. Attach a cookie semicircle on each side of the caramel chocolate to form wings. Pipe eyes on the caramel chocolates with royal icing and melted chocolate.
Notes
- Ensure cookies are fully cooled before decorating to prevent melting of icing and chocolate decorations.
- You may need to bake cookies in batches if your oven or baking trays are small.
- Royal icing consistency should be pipeable but not runny; adjust water quantity if needed.
- Use a small piping tip or snip the bag end carefully for detailed decoration work.
- Store decorated cookies in an airtight container to keep them fresh.
Keywords: Halloween cookies, spider cookies, bat cookies, chocolate chip cookies, Halloween treats, festive cookies
