Spooky Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Spider Cookies

Happy Halloween!! My best friend is throwing her big annual bash this weekend, and I decided to make a couple "themed" goodies to contribute this year including these incredibly cute and spooky spider cookies! 

The base is a deliciously tender rich and peanut buttery cookie, stuffed with a mix of goodies (I used PB chips, milk chocolate chips, and toffee bits) - you can mix and match or stick to just chocolate chips if you prefer! 

On top I used dark chocolate chips for the spider bodies. There are a lot of spider cookie variations out there, but I'm not a huge fan of whoppers, and decided this route was a little simpler and I was thrilled with how they came out! 

My 6-year old Baby Baker had a great time helping roll the cookie balls, press the chocolate chips into the warm cookies and even decorated a few spiders with the gel. This is a great project to do with your littles to get in the Halloween spooookkky spirit!

Spooky Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Spider Cookies adapted from HeatherFeather on Food

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sweet creamy peanut butter (do not use reduced fat versions - I used Jiff)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup mixed chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and toffee bits

Decoration
1 small tube black decorating gel
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Cream the softened butter with the peanut butter in the bowl of a stand mixer, blend in the sugars and whip until creamy (a couple minutes).
2. One at a time add in the eggs, blending well between additions.
3. Add in the flour and baking soda, mixing on low speed just until combined. Stir in the add-ins (PB chips, chocolate chips, toffee bits, etc.) by hand with a spatula.
4. Place cookie dough in the refrigerator, covered, for at least 1 hour to chill before proceeding.
5. When the dough is chilled, work in batches (refrigerate unused dough between batches) and pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silpat.
6. Roll out 12 walnut sized balls and flatten slightly in a disc shape. Line on mat and bake for about 10 minutes. Bottoms should be just lightly golden brown.
7. Place 1 - 3 chocolate chips (upside down, flat bottoms should be facing upwards) into the warm cookies (gently - you won't need to press hard). 
8. Allow to cool on the mat to firm up for just a few minutes before removing gently to cooling rack to complete cooling.
9. Once cookies are completely cooled add 8 little legs using black decorating gel (punch just a very small hole into the tip of the gel tube - use a thumbtack or something similar so you can create thin legs).