Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Tarantula Cookies...

I know it may be a couple weeks early, but since we always make those Butterfinger Eyeballs for the Wednesday Treat Day just before Halloween, I thought it might be fun to sneak in an extra themed goodie beforehand. Chocolate spiders anyone?

I couldn't wait to give these cookies a try, but note they are fairly labor intensive, at least in the decorating department. The faintly chocolate (there is only 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder added) cookie dough comes together in a snap and is easily workable without needing to chill the dough first. The original instructions would have you roll the dough into rounds balls, then insert the pretzel legs - however, I found it was a bit tough to fit in eight legs. Shaping the two dozen pieces into rounded rectangles was much easier - think a fat, slightly flattened Tootsie Roll.

Instead of using the thin pretzel sticks as they were (perhaps ours were extra long?), I did snap off about 1/4" worth of each on one side. I did this because they seemed a bit too long sticking out of the dough. I'm glad I did this because the weight of the melted chocolate poured on top may have given them a reason to snap off while decorating if I had kept them that long. When these go into the oven, I found the easiest way to check for doneness was to watch for one or two small cracks to form on the top and if you gave them a gentle press in the center, the cookie would spring back. It can be hard to tell since the dough is stained from that dark cocoa powder.

When you go to drench the completely cooled cookies in melted bittersweet chocolate, what I found that worked for me was to place the cookie on top of a fork, hold it over the bowl of chocolate and use a small ladle (or spoon) to cover the top of the cookie and pretzel legs entirely. While the original directions asked you to line the baked spiders up on a wire rack and pour the chocolate over (faster to do, yes), I think this would have been more messy and then you'd have to deal with the giant amount of excess chocolate that created a flood below. Also, you would have a bunch of sprinkles mixed into all that chocolate left behind!

I found that coating three or four cookies at a time, then going back to give them their "hairy coat" with a blizzard of chocolate sprinkles, gave the chocolate enough time to barely begin to set, leaving the tops sticky enough to hold the sprinkles. The first spider I coated I watched in disappointment as some of the sprinkles (and Red Hot eyes!) drooped off. Depending on the temperature, it may take a few hours for them to completely set - I was able to pick up them without touching wet chocolate in about three hours. I did end up with plenty of pretzel sticks and melted chocolate leftover, all which ended up together (perhaps a few Oreo's went in for a dunk too, but I'll deny that) for a salty/sweet snack over the next few days!

16 comments:

  1. They are adorable! :-) Happy Halloween.

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  2. Love these! We've come up with our own treat day around here - ususally on Saturday or Sunday. This weekend we're making cake pops for the first time. Hopefully we'll give these a shot next weekend - closer to Halloween!

    Thanks for a great idea!

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  3. So adorable. And your pictures are always amazing.

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  4. What a neat idea!!! Plenty of time to get the ingredients.

    So glad to see you posting again.

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  5. so cute. and great tips too. thanks for sharing all that!

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  6. Great idea and fantastic tips to make everything easier for us. Your tips and pictures are worth wainting for . . . dang, but it's good to have another post from you.

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  7. I love these! So glad you're back to posting. :)

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  8. Glad to see you're back and with a scary delicious treat no less. Definitely inspiring as I am going to a halloween themed supper club next weekend and am debating what to bring...

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  9. Wonderful to see you posting again!!

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  10. LOVE THEM, cant wait to try them !!!!! ps...sending dog smooches to your pooches!I hope they are doing well

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  11. I'm not certain how many of these would actually make it to serve guests!

    How's Dora's training coming along?

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  12. Glad to see this idea since we have a family Halloween party this coming weekend. Love it! Most of all it is so nice to see your post. I check daily and felt a HUGE smile cross my face when there was a post this time.

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  13. These are adorable! My Girl Scout Troop would have had a blast with them.
    As for the eyeball... we made a version last year and I've already had 2 requests to make them again!!

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  14. Thanks all!

    Dora's training is going well, I guess. She's all good with sit, down, whatever... but she isn't progressing with the aggressive issues towards other people and dogs. She seems to do fine in a crowd, but not when there's only a few people around. We won't be giving up though!

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  15. I made these last night, and I actually made it to bed before 1 am---thanks a lot!! they are adorable and will be single gifts to very special folks. I used mini M&Ms for the eyes and used various colors. Also used colored jimmies for some of the spiders and they came out looking quite festive and fun. I'll post this over on Eat.at

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  16. Awesome, so creative. The kid in my life would love this.

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