Its the time of year for Halloween! And what better way to celebrate then eating creepy crawlers like Spiders! I must admit, that im a little but of an arachnophobia but creating these creepy crawlers was fun! Plus they taste yummy and look superbly adorable!

Here’s how you make them!

INGREDIENTS :  

• 2 cups (250g) flour
• 1 cup (200g) sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (I use  –> Extract de vanilla tahitensis, click here to buy)
• 1 1/2 tbs cinnamon
• 226g butter , at room temp.
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 200g dark chocolate
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 cup (125g) icing sugar
• 1/4 cup cream, more if needed
• A few drops of black food colouring
• plastic wrap – I use eco-friendly plastic wrap which is made from pure sugarcane and 100% fumble free , so NO plastic! Read about it here –> ninjaplast

METHOD : 

Cookie – 

1. Start by mixing the butter and sugar together, with a hand held mixer or a stand mixer. Mix until fully combined and slightly fluffy.
2. Add in vanilla, cinnamon and egg. Mix until combined and slightly frothy.
3. Then in a separate bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder together. Once fully combined fold in the dry ingredients with the wet, until combines using a wooden spoon or spatula.
4. Once combined, wrap the dough in clingfilm/plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 10 min.

Once rested, you’re ready to make your spider base –

1. First, you start with the legs, my spiders had 6 legs, because like I said earlier im already a slight arachnophobia and couldn’t stand seeing a proper spider so i made my own version its 6 legs! (but do go ahead and create an 8 legged one, if you dare! ha!)  A note: make sure to have your cookie tray ready, lined with parchment paper or baking paper. You will place each legs and body directly onto the tray as you make them. They are way too fidgety to create separately and them place on the tray.
2. To make the legs, you will create one long thin leg, and then create three small shapes and attach them together. Look at the video below for a better description (because clearly I can’t explain very well through writing! haha)
4. Once all your legs are ready , be it 6 or 8, you will create the body and head. For this you will take a piece of the dough, roughly the size of your thumb nail, and create a small ball. Place that onto the tray. Then take another piece of dough, slightly bigger than your thumbnail, and roll it into a ball. Press gently to flatten it out, you should be left with an oval’s shape. Then make tiny divits on either side (this is where your legs will go) so 3 on one side and 3 on the other of your doing 6 legs, or 4 on one side and 4 on the other if your doing 8 legs.
5. Once the body is ready, then attach it to the head. Then you will make the little spider ‘tail’. Take a tiny piece of dough and shape it into a triangle, and then attach it to the back of the body piece. Place on tray and bake. Look at the video below for reference :
6. Once all of your bodies and legs are ready, bake in the oven for 8-10 min at 175 C.
7. Take them out and let cool completely before assembling.
8. While you wait for your cookies to cool off, start with the chocolate covering.
9. Take your dark chocolate, and chop it up into pieces and melt in the microwave (or over a stove, ina double boiler), with the coconut oil. One melted, stir together and set aside.
10. Then in a small bowl, pour the icing sugar and cream in, and combine until mixed and a hard texture forms. Keep adding cream  little by little in order to make sure the royal icing isn’t too runny and can be used as a ‘glue’ element to glue on the legs to the spider. Add a few drops of black or brown food colouring and mix. A note : If your royal icing becomes too runny, just add more icing sugar. If it is too stiff, then add a few drops at a time of cream until you get the right consistency. It should be thick enough to dry quickly and hold the legs in place.  

Assembly : 

1. Now your’e ready to start creating your spider! Take the body and on a clean surface (i did mine on a silpat, but use baking paper or just a plane surface if you like) and take the respective legs of that body. Grab your royal icing and either pipe on small dots on where you will place your legs, or brush on the royal icing (like i did). Then take a leg, one by one, and place onto the drop of royal icing dot, hold it still for a few seconds until it holds itself. This is an extremely fiddle process! Dont press to hard, otherwise your cookie legs will break. This takes time, and patience! I broke som any legs when i did my first spider, so dont worry if yours breaks too, just keep at it, and you will get it by the end! I promise! 🙂  
2. Then once your legs are attached, you can start painting them with chocolate! Take a paint brush, and grab your melted chocolate (if it stiffens up again, just re-melt it in the microwave fora couple of seconds). And start painting the spider. Start by covering the areas where the legs are attached. Make sure to paint a lot of chocolate there, because you want to make sure those legs dont break off! Then once thats done and dried, start brush gently and carefully every part of the spider you find. Once ready, place them in the fridge fro 10 min and there you have your spider!

I added sugar eyeballs to my spiders for some fun, but you can easily use royal icing and do small eyes with that on them!

Voila! Your creepy crawlers are ready to scare and be eaten!

Happy Halloween!!