Halloween is just ANOTHER great excuse for me to bake and get a little creative in the kitchen, so here are my Halloween Biscuits – Scrummy Spiders!
I thought these were a great little bake for the kids (of any age!) and are so cheap and easy, so a bit of a winner all around. I reckon they’d look pretty good on a Halloween party table too. To decorate I used chocolate covered raisins, giant chocolate buttons and melted chocolate, but you really don’t have to be limited to this. I had all sorts of ideas, little red strawberry sweets or white chocolate buttons for the body instead? little orange crisp balls for the head?? Who knows – the halloween sweet isle is your oyster :) ENJOY!
Ingredients for Halloween Biscuits – Scrummy Spiders
110g unsalted butter
65g icing sugar
1 medium egg
2 tsp vanilla extract (almond/coconut if you prefer the taste!)
220g plain flour (plus a little extra for dusting/rolling)
60g dark chocolate for melting (or a black icing gel pen)
a mixture of giant chocolate buttons, choloate covered raisins, and any other things you might want to make the spider out of.
a toothpick
round cookie cutter/top of a large glass
2-3 greased/lined baking sheets (and some room in the fridge)
makes about 25-27 small biscuits
1) In a large bowl whisk together the butter and sugar until a little paler in colour. Once done, whisk in your egg and vanilla extract. Tip: try not to over mix/whisk. Whisking well will give the biscuits a light and fluffy texture but will make them spread and loose thier shape a little when cooking.
2) Next pour in the flour. To start off I used a wooden spoon to bring everything together and then finished off using my hands until it forms into a ball. Cover the ball with cling film and pop in the fridge to chill for about an hour (if you have time).
3) Once chilled, take the ball out of the fridge. Sprinkle some flour on a clean work surface and, using a rolling pin, roll the dough into one large flat sheet, at about 1-2cm thickness. (No worries if it’s little thicker, you just get a thicker cookie) Then take your biscuit cutter/top of a glass, dip it into some flour or icing sugar and cut out your circles. Place them on the prepared baking sheets. These can be placed quite close together, as they don’t spread much in the oven. (Make sure you use all the dough, re rolling any extra dough together and repeating)
4) When all the dough has been used and you have some very full biscuit trays, place them back in the fridge for, again, at least a hour, a little longer if you have time. This seems arduous, but it’s worth it. It means they keep their shape.
5) Preheat the oven to 180oC and take your sheets out of the fridge. Place the trays around the middle of the oven for about 10-13 mins. The thickness of the cookies will determine the time in the oven, so keep a close eye on them. As soon as they begin to brown around the edges, take them out and leave them to cool completely on a wire rack.
6) Once the cookies have cooled completely, melt you chocolate (for my preferred melting method click here and go to number 11) and then leave aside to cool briefly.
7) Time to decorate the Halloween Biscuits – Scrummy Siders! I used the melted chocolate as a glue for the body and head of the spider. A little dab on the back using a small spoon and it should stick perfectly! I cut the chocolate covered raisins in half so they had a flatter side and therefore easier to stick to the biscuit. For the legs I used a toothpick (a cake tester/straw/skewer will suffice). I dabbed the toothpick in the melted chocolate and then used my toothpick as a pencil as I drew legs accordingly, any way you like – just make sure there are 8!
8) Once decorated, pop them back in the fridge for about an hour or so to dry and set….
….and there you have it, Halloween Biscuits – Scrummy Spiders ready for devouring.
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