As far as Halloween treats go, you can't find easier or cuter than these Spider Cookies. They're approachable for any age, and require no special equipment or ingredients.
I love making Halloween recipes each year, like Halloween Brownies, Witch Hat Cupcakes, Halloween Pizzas, Halloween Cupcakes, or Pumpkin Cupcakes!

Spider Cookies are the creepiest, yet cutest, treats on the block!
These Halloween Spider cookies are on my MUST make list every Halloween season! They are such cute Halloween cookies and always a crowd pleaser – who can resist a classic chocolate chip cookie? Skip the store and don't worry about buying any fancy kitchen gadgets or cut outs, you don't need any special equipment for these! I love how they are ready for any party or gathering in just 30 minutes!
How to make Spider Cookies:
Make chocolate chip cookie dough: Bake chocolate chip cookies, and immediately after pulling the hot cookies out of the oven, place 3-4 chocolate chips on each cookie with the point facing up. Melt additional chocolate chips in a double boiler or a glass bowl in the microwave heating on low, stirring every 30 seconds until melted.

Draw Spider legs: Pour melted chocolate into a small ziplock bag and cut off a tiny bit on the corner to make a very small hole. Pipe the spider legs on both sides of each chocolate chip to make easy spider cookies.

Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: Keep any leftover spider cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for 1-2 days or freeze in a freezer safe bag or container.
To Freeze: Let cookies cool completely then place in an airtight container or bag safe for the freezer and freeze for up to 3 months.
More Fall Recipes:
- Pumpkin Mug Cake
- Bananas Foster
- Caramel Apples
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Butterbeer
- Caramel Popcorn
- Pumpkin Spice Eggnog
- Dinner in a Pumpkin
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Recipe

Spider Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups + 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 12 Tablespoons butter , melted and cooled until warm
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips , divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Make Cooking Dough: In a medium bowl mix together flour, salt, and baking soda. In a separate large mixing bowl beat the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer until well blended. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Gently stir in ¾ cup chocolate chips. The dough will be soft.
- Bake: Scoop dough into balls and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
- Add chocolate chips on top: Remove from oven and place 3-4 chocolate chips into the tops of each cookie, point side up.
- Melt Chocolate: Add remaining chocolate chips to a microwave safe bowl and microwave, on low power, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted.
- Draw Spider legs: Spoon the melted chocolate into a ziplock bag. Use scissors to cut the smallest slit from one of the corners (you want the hole to be very small to make your spider legs). Squeeze the melted chocolate through the small hole, next to the chocolate chips on top of the cookie, to make 8 spider legs.
Notes
Nutrition
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I originally shared this recipe October 2015. Updated October 2022 and October 2024.
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I love recipes made from scratch!! They taste homey and who doesn’t love comfort kinda food!!! Going to try your German pancake recipe looks like you have a lot of good ones glad I’m following you Laura❤️
So disappointed that the whole mixture melted into one ginormous cookie that took 30 mlns to cook!! I had converted the American weights into grams but maybe something got lost in translation. Hope the broken bits taste good!
I think something must have went wrong with the conversion! So sorry to hear this and I hope you were able to enjoy some of it!
Such a cute and brilliant idea! My grandson and I had fun making these. Everybody was surprised and spooked to discover spiders on their chocolate chip cookies!!
Loved this recipe!! The cookies were delicious !! I did half the amount of chocolate chips as it was way too much for me and they still had loads in them !! I did cook.for an extra 2 mins also. I got 15 large cookies out of this so I used Maltesers for the body of the ‘parent’ spiders and chcolate chips.for ‘babies’!! Piped legs as per instructions !!
can i just add chocolate chips before i bake the cookies?
i liked to try the recipe but scared to add chocolate chips afterwards.
Sure, they just wont poke out as much, to make the “body” of the spider.
I made these for Halloween and got raves on the cookie itself. If I make them for Christmas without the spiders do I just add 2 cups of chocolate chips to the batter?
Im so happy to hear that! Yes, this recipe is just adapted from my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/perfect-chocolate-chip-cookies/
We loved this recipe. The cookies came out perfect and I put the last batch in the fridge to get an extra puff out of them. We did bake them a little longer, by perhaps two minutes, but they were absolutely delicious.