Halloween Spider Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

By Hklbrries

Halloween's ghastly specters may give your children or party guests the chills, but rich Spider Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting will revive their spirits in no time at all.

These treats are easily made and will beguile tasters in spite of the suitably sinister look of their decoration, derived from black licorice and jellybeans.

Ingredients

• Halloween Spider Cookies:
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 squares (1 ounce) semisweet chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Black licorice whips
• Black jellybeans
• Black decorating gel
• Halloween candies, assorted
• Cream Cheese Frosting:
• 2 (3 ounces each) packages cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Details

Servings 32

Preparation

Step 1

Cookies: Cream butter and sugar in mixing bowl until fluffy. Beat in egg and then melted chocolate. Beat in flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt until combined. Divide dough in half and shape each half into a roll about 8 inches long. Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut rolls into 1/4-inch slices and place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until cookies are set when lightly touched, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool completely.

Frosting: Combine cream cheese and confectioners' sugar. Spread about 1 teaspoon frosting on half of the cookies. Top with remaining cookies and spread additional frosting on top.

Decorate the cookies with "spiders," using jellybeans for bodies and licorice for legs. To make cobweb cookies, squeeze a small amount of black gel on the middle of the cookie. Use the end of a toothpick to draw gel from the middle of the cookie to edges. Then put gel across to connect the gel lines in a cobweb pattern. Cookies can also be decorated with a variety of ready-made Halloween candy decorations. Once frosted, keep cookies refrigerated.