That title is gross and creepy, but hey – “♪C’est l’Halloween, c’est l’Halloween hey!♪” (French immersion anyone? Oh that takes me back. Here’s a link to the full lyrics in case you too are feeling childhood elementary school nostalgia like I am 🙂 – video with lyrics or if you’re feeling a bit lazier and just want the lyrics, go here).
So….spoiler alert (or should I say spider alert? 😉 ) – this is a Halloween themed post! (what???? But Amber, it’s only October 30th!!! What are you? A department store? Starbucks? Can’t you just let me feel the season a little bit first before bashing me over the head with it way before its time? 😉 ). Kevin and I hosted a little Halloween soirée (clearly my French nostalgia is going to infect this entire post. You’ve been warned) last night, and in the spirit (get it? *le sigh* Amber, if you have to point out and explain your jokes to people, then they are officially considered failures. So please…just….just…I can’t even *even more woeful le sigh*) of the season, I obviously opted to take advantage of the theme-yness and make these delightful, yet super simple and lazy peanut butter Oreo spider cookies! (I swear it wasn’t because I was trying to use up a bag of mini Oreos that I had kicking around in my cupboard. Well, that wasn’t the only reason anyway 😉 ). Now I know what you’re thinking “ummm..those are supposed to be spiders?” and my response to you is “Shut up, my lack of artistic ability is no laughing matter. In fact, it’s a disability that’s beyond my control. I have a medic alert bracelet for it.” Ok, maybe I took that a little too far. However, I am sure that if you dear reader were to create these cookies, you would do a much better job than me. Maybe you’d be cuter and add some little edible googly eyes (which I would’ve considered, but most commercially available brands have gelatin in them because they’re all jerks like that. I’ve made my own googly eyes (Google doesn’t have a patent on “Googly eyes” by any chance do that? Because if they don’t, that’s a seriously missed business opportunity on their part. Especially at this time of year. I’m just sayin’) before (see last Halloween’s post here), but honestly, I was feeling incredibly lazy and just wasn’t feeling up to it. It is also not entirely impossible that I’m borderline arachnophobic and didn’t want these spider cookies looking too spider-like because they’d creep me out too much and give me nightmares. I know nightmares should probably be a Halloween given or else you’re not doing it right, but I have neighbours and shrieking in terror all night just didn’t seem very neighbourly 😉 . Then they’d call the cops on me, I’d get ousted from my home and be forced to live in a cardboard box on the street. Who knew cookies could wield so much power and have such potential for evil in them?
Moving on. I’m providing a peanut butter cookie recipe to go along with these puppies (err…spiders?), but honestly, you could probably use any cookie recipe that you like, stick in a mini Oreo (or a full sized Oreo if you want really huge cookies. Go big or go home right? Do whatever floats your boat here), draw on some spider legs with melted chocolate (and decorate however else you like of course. Googly eyes as previously mentioned, maybe some spun sugar over the top to make it look all spider webby. The possibilities are endless. OOOO…You could sandwich it between another cookie so that it looks like you killed a spider by squishing it between 2 cookies! Cookies, is there anything you can’t do? You’re just so much more than a delicious mouthful of sweetness.)
I hope your Halloween is filled with all the delightful scaryness of the season, and that you have nightmares beyond your wildest dreams (hmmm…wishing nightmares on people? That sounds mean and evil, but just feels so fitting right now. When you wake up in a cold sweat from a horrifying nightmare about creepy crawlies though, you’ll be glad to have these cookies on hand to assuage your fear and make you realize that not all creepy crawlies have to be terrible 🙂 ).
Yield: 2-3 dozen cookies (depending how big you make your cookies)
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1/4 cup vegan butter
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 egg replacer
- 3/4 cup peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- pinch of salt teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup cane sugar (optional – for topping cookies)
- 24 mini Oreos
- 1/4-1/2 cup chocolate chips (this is just for decorating, so you shouldn’t need to much)
Directions
- With an electric mixer blend together in a large bowl the coconut oil, butter and sugar. Mix in peanut butter, then the egg replacer and vanilla. Slowly sift in your dry ingredients. Cover and refrigerate until firm (an hour or so)
- Preheat oven to 350F and grease or line a baking sheet with parchment or silpat.
- Shape dough into 1 inch balls and roll in cane sugar if desired. Place a couple of inches apart on cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with fork.
- Bake for about 10 minutes or until just start to brown. Remove from the oven and and allow to cool slightly befor using the back of a spoon to make a small divot in the centre of the cookie (I didn’t do it this way for these photos, I just pressed the Oreos straight into the cookie, but trust me, making a divot after they’ve slightly cooled will not cause you’re cookies to crack apart all over the place like many of mine did, so they will be much prettier looking).
- Place chocolate chips in a small bowl and microwave for 1 minute. Stir until completely smooth (microwave a bit longer if stirring doesn’t completely melt your chocolate).
- Put a small dollop of melted chocolate in the divot you created in your cookie and press a mini Oreo into the centre of each cookie.
- Either using a toothpick, or placing the rest of your melted chocolate into a small piping bag (or sandwich baggie with the corner cut off), pipe spider legs on each cookie.
0 Comments