Peanut Butter Spider Cookies

These Peanut Butter Spider Cookies are not only adorable & delicious, but they’re the perfect halloween treat to make with your kids or for a party! A soft-baked, thick, and chewy peanut butter cookie topped with Reese’s peanut butter cups, candy eyeballs, and icing legs to resemble a cute but creepy spider.

If you love Holiday themed cute food like me then be sure and try my Halloween Bundt Cake or these Halloween Monster Cookies.  

Spider Cookies Recipe (Peanut Butter Spider Cookies)

Aren’t these peanut butter spider cookies just the cutest thing?! I get so excited for all the Holidays because of all the fun foods you can make to celebrate. 

Mu kids happen to LOVE Halloween (me not so much) but what I do love is making cute treats with them, and these spider cookies are always at the top of their list of treats to make. 

A soft-baked, thick, chewy peanut butter cookie base that is topped with a Reese’s peanut butter cup, eyeballs, and black cookie icing so it looks like a spider. 

Ingredients Needed

• Peanut Butter Cookie Ingredients

  • Butter – You can use salted or unsalted butter. I use salted butter + the salt called for in the recipe. If you are using unsalted butter you will want to increase the salt to 1/2 teaspoon. 
  • Granulated White Sugar
  • Light Brown Sugar – You can use dark brown sugar but light brown sugar is more commonly used in baking. 
  • Creamy Peanut Butter – I recommend using regular creamy peanut butter and not the all-natural or the kind you have to stir together. 
  • Large Egg
  • Vanilla Extract – For the best flavor, for any baking recipe, use pure vanilla extract. It is most definitely worth the extra cost for pure vanilla. 
  • All-Purpose Flour – I use unbleached four. 
  • Baking Soda
  • Kosher Salt – Double the amount of salt if using unsalted butter

• Spider Ingredients

  • Miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – These are the ones that come wrapped in the gold foil. They are not the mini ones that come unwrapped in the bag. 
  • Candy Eyeballs – You can order these on amazon or find them at the store near the baking supplies. If you can’t find them, try using the black cookie icing to create the eyeballs instead. You can also cut some marshmallows into small chunks and use those as the eyes. Dot some black icing onto the marshmallow for the eye. 
  • Black Cookie Icing

How To Make Peanut Butter Cookies with Reese’s Spiders

Learn how to make these cute & festive spider cookies for your family or a Halloween party with the easy steps below. Be sure and read to the bottom of the post where there is printable recipe card and a pin it button so you can save this recipe for later.

• Cream Butter + Sugar : In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed for about 2-3 minutes. It’s important to mix it for at least 2 minutes so it can get fluffy and much lighter in color. 
• Egg + Vanilla : Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Mix until just combined. No need to mix longer than what it takes to combine the egg into the dough. 
• Dry Ingredients : Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed just until combined and no flour pockets remain. 
• Chill Time : Shape the dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour to chill. Unwrap the Reese’s and place them into the fridge alongside the dough. 
• Preheat : While the dough is chilling preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lime two cookie sheets/baking sheets with parchment paper. 
• Cookies : Create 1-inch balls of dough and place them on the baking sheets. Cook for 9-11 minutes or just until the cookies begin to crack. The cookies will be puffy looking when they’re done baking. 
• Spiders : Immediately press a Reese’s into the middle of each peanut butter cookie. Let the cookies cool completely on a cooling rack. Glue on the eyes with a dab of cookie icing, and the use the same cookie icing to create 8 legs on each “spider”. Four legs on each side. 

Spider Cookies FAQ’s

• What Kind of Peanut Butter Is Best?

  • I highly recommend only using creamy peanut butter in this recipe. 
  • Use a creamy peanut butter, like Jim, Skippy, Peter Pan, or any peanut butter that does not have a top layer of oil in it. 
  • I do not recommend using all-natural peanut butter. It is much drier which will yield a dry cookie. 

• Variations

  • Spider Body : Instead of a Reese’s you can use any kind of round shaped candy. Some other great ideas are Rolo’s, the chocolate Ferroro Roche balls, chocolate truffles, etc. I prefer the peanut butter because it pairs perfectly with the peanut butter cookie base. 
  • Spider Legs : Using cookie icing makes it so easy! But there are same substitutions if you can’t find it or want to use something else. Use some chocolate frosting that you put into a piping bag, with a small tip, and pipe on the legs. You can also just melt some chocolate chips, add them to a Ziploc bag, snip the corner off slightly and make the legs that way. 
  • Eyeballs : If you can’t find the candy eyeballs try one of these other ideas. Cut a mini marshmallow into a small piece and press the sticky side onto the Reese’s cup. Use the black cookie icing to dab an eye in the center of the white marshmallow. You can also just use the black cookie icing (or buy some white cookie icing) and create eyeballs with that. 

• How to Store Leftovers

  • Store any leftover cookies in an airtight storage container, or inside a Ziploc bag, at room temperature for 3-5 days. Cookies left out in the air will likely harden and go stale quickly. 
  • I prefer these cookies the day they’re made. Anytime you are baking with peanut butter, the cookie can tend to dry out, even as it sits as leftovers inside a container, so I recommend making these the day you want to serve them. Try eating one warm too! Obviously you can’t draw on the legs while the cookie is warm, but you can eat a warm peanut butter cookie with the Reese’s cup on it. So good!

• Freezing Instructions

  • Add the Reese’s cups to the tops of the peanut butter cookies and let them cool completely (as you would in the recipe). Once cooled, store them inside a freezer-safe bag or container for up to 3 months. 
  • You can freeze half of the cookies and then reserve the other half to decorate like spiders.

Recipe Tips

Here are a few of my helpful tips so that you can have success recreating this recipe in your own kitchen ♥

• Reese’s Tips : I have found that if you try to peel the gold foil wrapper & the black wrapper from the Reese’s while they are at room temperature, that some of the chocolate ends up getting peeled away as well. I highly recommend chilling the still wrapped Reese’s inside the fridge before unwrapping. Place the bag of Reese’s inside the fridge during the 1 hour chill time. Unwrap them and put them back into the fridge until you are ready to press them into the warm cookie. You do not want to add room temperature Reese’s to the cookie, otherwise it will melt all over and won’t hold up to form the ‘spider body’.
• Butter + Salt : The recipe has been tested, and made with, salted butter + table salt (regular iodized salt). If using unsalted butter you will want to increase the salt amount to 1/2 teaspoon instead. 
• Cookie Shape Tip : After you place the Reese’s onto the cookie, take a glass cup or a biscuit cutter, and put it around the cookie and gently swirl it inside the cup or biscuit cutter. This will help reshape the cookie into a nice round shape. 
• Use Parchment Paper : I always tell people that the #1 secret to perfectly cooked cookies is pre-cut parchment paper sheets! It helps the cookies bake more evenly and it prevents the bottoms from getting browned. I have linked the exact ones I use below in the recipe card. In fact, it scares me to run out so I actually keep a stock of them in my pantry.

More Cute Halloween Recipes You’ll Love

• Easy Mummy Rice Krispie Treats – Made with store-bought Rice Krispie treats and melted white candy melts to create a mummy wrapping. This recipe also uses candy eyeballs so make them with the leftovers from the spider cookies. So fun!
• Mummy Hotdogs – A hot dog wrapped up mummy style with crescent dough. These also use candy eyeballs too!
• Candy Corn Cookies – A chewy, soft peanut butter cookie topped with candy corn after baking. 
• Leftover Halloween Candy Cookie Bars – Use up all that Halloween candy and makes these super soft-baked, chewy bars with chunks of candy, oatmeal, peanut butter, and Halloween sprinkles.
• Family Favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe – I love making these for all the Holidays! Simply switch up the color of the frosting and the sprinkle you use. You can also use halloween shaped cookie cutters as well.