Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 12-15 minutes

Cooling/setting: 5-8 minutes

Over all Time: 40-45 minutes

Makes: 20

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Prep Time: 45 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Setting/cooling Time: 10 minutes

Over all Time: 1 hour and 20 minutes

Makes: 8

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Spider Cookies:

Ingredients:

❑ ½ cup and 2 teaspoons of softened butter

❑ ¼ cup of peanut butter

❑ 1 egg

❑ 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

❑ 1½ cups of flour

❑ ½ teaspoon of baking soda

❑ 20 peanut butter cups

❑ 1 cup of milk chocolate

❑ Icing eyes

Ghost Cookies:

Ingredients:

❑ ¾ cup of butter

❑ 1 cup of sugar

❑ 1 large egg

❑ ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

❑ 3 ¼ cup of flour

❑ ¼ cup of popping candy or rainbow sprinkles

Instructions: Spider Cookies

1. Heat oven to 350ºF and line two baking sheets with parchment. Using an electric hand whisk, cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy, then beat in the egg and vanilla. Once combined, stir in the flour, bicarb and ¼ tsp salt.
2. Scoop 18-20 tbsps of the mixture onto the trays, leaving enough space between each to allow for spreading. Make a thumbprint in the centre of the cookies. Bake for 10-12 mins or until firm at the edges but still soft in the middle – they’ll harden a little as they cool. Leave to cool on the tray for a few mins before topping each biscuit with a peanut butter cup, Rolo or Malteser. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
3. Heat the chocolate in the microwave in short bursts, or in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, until just liquid. Scrape into a piping bag and leave to cool a little. Pipe the legs onto each spider, then stick two eyes on each. Leave to set. Will keep for three days in an airtight container.

Instructions: Ghost Cookies

1. Heat oven to 400ºF and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.
2. Put the butter in a bowl and beat with electric beaters until soft and creamy. Beat in the sugar, then the egg and vanilla, and finally the flour to make a dough. If the dough feels a bit sticky add a little more flour and knead it in. Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for half an hour.
3. Heavily flour a surface and cut the pastry in half. Roll out one half to 5mm thickness. Using a cookie cutter in the shape of a ghost (or any spooky shaped cutter you like), cut out 12 ghost shapes, which will make 4 cookies. Put the cut shapes on a baking tray lined with baking paper and put back in the fridge. Repeat with the second half of the pastry. Swap into the fridge, taking the chilled ghost biscuits out.
4. Using a smaller cutter or a knife, cut a ghost-shaped hole in the middle of 4 of the biscuits on the tray, this is the space to store the surprise centre! Put these biscuits into the oven to bake for 10-12 mins, until pale but cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the other tray.
5. Once all the biscuits have cooled completely, they are ready to be assembled. Mix the icing sugar with 3 tbsp of water and mix well. It should be quite thick so add a little more icing sugar if the mixture is too runny. Take a biscuit without the centre missing, and spread or pipe a little icing around the edge. Press a biscuit with a centre missing on top, then sprinkle popping candy into the pocket that you have created (or rainbow sprinkles as an alternative, if you’re serving to very young children). Spread icing on the edge of the second biscuit and press another whole biscuit on top. Set aside to firm up. Make sure you leave them for a while so they don’t slide when you are finishing the decoration.
6. Once the cookies/biscuits feel firm and the icing has set, use the sugar paste to decorate them as you please, rolling it out, cutting it to shape and topping the biscuits. You may have to use a little of the icing to glue it down. Decorate with icing pens if you like.