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BOO! Chewy Brown Sugar Peanut Butter Spider Cookies. Old school-style soft and crinkly peanut butter cookies turned into the spookiest little spiders for Halloween! These are some of the best cookies. Rich and decadent, yet shockingly easy to make, and so much fun for spooky season. Brown sugar and maple syrup help to create a cookie that’s perfectly chewy in the center. Each cookie is then topped with a mini peanut butter cup and chocolate Milk Dud to create each spider. Spooky, cute, and so DELICIOUS!
I might be a few days early, but it’s just about Spooooky Season! For as long as I can remember, I’ve always, always LOVED Halloween. I’m not sure why. As a kid, I was never that into trick-or-treating. I just really enjoy the fun that comes along in the month of October.
It’s a time to embrace a magical world. Enjoy some spooky stories, watch Harry Potter, Halloweentown, Twitches, and every other Disney Halloween movie. Maybe just live for a moment in a fantasy world.
Asher and I certainly have A LOT of fun with it.
Peanut butter spider cookies are nothing new. But you know what? These cookies certainly are fun, and my recipe is super yummy too!
Plus these are totally no fuss. You can actually have fun baking these cookies and not want to pull your hair out trying to make them cute. They’re easy.
Details
Step 1: make the cookies
First, the butter. You’ve got to use a good salted butter. I think the butter, along with the brown sugar and maple syrup, are the elements that really make these cookies GOOD! So find a salted butter you love.
Cream the butter together with the brown sugar and peanut butter until light and fluffy. This leaves you with a cookie that’s just perfectly sweet and soft, but not cakey, which is KEY. No one’s into a cakey peanut butter cookie.
Next, add the maple syrup, an egg, and a good splash of vanilla. Now add in the dry ingredients, flour, baking soda, and a small pinch of salt.
Step 2: bake
Roll the dough into balls, then bake away! No chilling required! Simple. Simple.
As with many of my cookie recipes, this one requires tapping the baking sheet on the counter midway through baking. Then finish baking. I say this with every cookie, but actually, this step is KEY. It will ensure you have the least cakey peanut butter cookies.
Tapping the baking pan on the counter deflates the center of the cookie, pushing the edges out.
Step 3: assemble the spiders
Use mini peanut butter cups and chocolate-covered Milk Duds to create the bodies of your spider. Push each into the cookies while they’re still warm. The candies will spookily melt into each cookie.
Just look through the photos, you’ll get the visuals very easily.
Use mini candy eyes and attach those to the tops of the Milk Duds.
For the legs, I started out using broken pieces of chocolate-covered mini pretzel twists. That got a little tedious, so I switched to just using melted milk chocolate. I drew on each leg with the chocolate and ended up liking this look better than the pretzels anyway.
You can certainly do either way, both are cute and super yummy!
Looking for other Halloween cookies? Here are my favorites:
Halloween Monster Mash Cookies
“I put a Spell on You” Poison Apple Martini
Black Widow Peanut Butter Bars
Hocus Pocus Spellbook Brownies
BOO! Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Milk Chocolate Stuffed Jack-O’-Lantern Cookies
Lastly, if you make these Chewy Brown Sugar Peanut Butter Spider Cookies, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Chewy Brown Sugar Peanut Butter Spider Cookies
Servings: 15 spiders
Calories Per Serving: 372 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 15 mini Reese’s
- 15 chocolate milk duds
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips, melted
- mini candy eyes
- broken pretzel twists (optional)
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.2. In a bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar, and peanut butter until light and fluffy, 2 minutes. Beat in the maple syrup, then add the egg and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt.3. Scoop the dough out into rounded 1 tablespoon size balls. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.4. Bake for 6-7 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and tap the baking sheet on the counter two times to flatten the cookies down. Return to the oven and bake another 3 minutes, until the cookies are just beginning to set on the edges, but still doughy in the center. They will continue to cook slightly as they sit on the baking sheet. 5. Top each cookie immediately with an upside-down peanut butter cup. Then 1 milk dud (see photos for guidance). Let cool. Spoon the melted chocolate into a sandwich bag and snip the corner off. Draw 3 legs on either side of the Reese's cup. Dot the eyes with chocolate, then attach 2 eyes on top of each Milk Dud. Let set until the chocolate is firm.6. Alternately, you can cover the pretzel pieces in chocolate and attach those as legs.
My forever go-to peanut butter cookie recipe (I just top with a Reese’s cup only for an every-day cookie). Starting to add some flair to them by doing pretzel pieces and chunky peanut butter instead. LOVE LOVE LOVE
Thank you so much! Love to hear you enjoyed this recipe! xT
These turned out so cute, and they were so delicious too! Thank you for all your amazing recipes.
Love to hear this Esther! Thanks so much for making these cookies and sharing your feedback:) xT
In the photos your show using the Reeces in foil but the ingredient list you have mini Reeces with a link to the mini Reeces on Amazon. In the photos the Reece cup is significantly looks bigger than the milk dud which is not realistic to what a mini Reece is compared to a milk dud. They are indeed the same size. This is very misleading. I understand taking pretty photos with lots of colors to engage audience but please be more realistic.
These turned out so great and easier than expected! I found that I was able to press the eyes right into the milk duds after they melted a touch instead of needing a dot of chocolate. Did the legs with chocolate instead of pretzels and they were adorable. Looks and taste both spot on! Will make these again for sure.
Thank you so much for trying out the recipe! Have an awesome weekend! xT
Question for peanut butter…. My little is asking to make these without PB. Do I need to substitute anything else to keep the ratio?
Hi there! I haven’t ever tried this without PB, you could sub another nut butter if you’d like! xT
They were tasty and my six grands had fun making them, although they got a little creative with the eye placement!
I had difficulty piping on the legs as I used melted chocolate chips. I guess I should have added butter or cream??
All in all we had a fun fall family time!
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Hey Laura! Thank you so so much! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe with your grand kids! xT
These are so delicious and adorable but…The recipe states “minis” and they are unwrapped in a bag. These were the same size as the milk duds so I couldn’t put the heads on, just put the eyes on the cookie. I think these should be “miniatures”, the wrapped ones?? They worked great without the heads but may want to think about whether or not you want the spider to have a 3 D head. 🙂
Loved making these with the kids! We piped the legs on (no pretzels) and they turned out super cute. Perfect amount of fussiness for a ten year old (if we had been also dipping pretzels in chocolate, things may have deteriorated 😂). And the cookie itself is perfect- not dry like many pb cookies can be! Great recipe per usual 🙂
Thank you so much for trying out the recipe! Have a great week! xT
These turned out so cute! I highly recommend buying pre-made chocolate-covered pretzels. I dipped mine in chocolate and the process was very tedious. You could pipe on the chocolate legs, but the pretzels add a nice textural element.
Thank you for taking the time to try out this recipe! So glad to hear you enjoyed it! xT
Love I make some today
Thank you! xT
These look fun, and I’ll be making with my kiddos.
But I’m totally wondering about the baked mini pumpkins. Can you bake and eat those?!?!?!
These sound fun to make. In your directions you said to make 3 legs per side. Spiders have four on each side as you did in the picture. The pretzel one needs more legs 😊
How do you attach the eyes? Maybe you said, and I missed it…
We put the mini pb cups and the Milk Duds on the cookies while hot. That melted the chocolate enough for the eyes to attach.
How cute are these?! Love them. 💖🎃 xx
Awww thank you! xT