Spider Web Cookies Food

SPIDER COOKIES

Steps:

• In medium-sized saucepan, combine sugar, milk, margarine, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally.
• Remove from heat and add vanilla. Stir.
• In large bowl, combine rolled oats, coconut, and cocoa. Stir well to combine.
• Pour liquid ingredients over dry ingredients in bowl. Stir to combine. Mixture may seem soft but resist the urge to add more rolled oats which will make the cookies hard and chippy. Let mixture stand, undisturbed, for 15-20 minutes and it will begin to firm up.
• Drop by spoonfuls onto wax-paper lined baking sheet. Place in refrigerator for apx. 1 hour to firm up cookies.
• Store in airtight container. These cookies also freeze well.

SPIDER WEB COOKIES

Steps:

• Make Easy Sugar Cookies, cut into 4-inch circles. Make Royal Icing.
• Separate Royal Icing into 2 small bowls. Leave one bowl of icing white; use black food coloring to dye icing in second bowl black. Load half of the piping-consistency white icing and all of the black icing into respective piping bags, both outfitted with small round tips (#2). Mix additional tablespoons of water into remaining half-bowl of white icing gradually, until it reaches a flooding consistency. Load flooding-consistency white icing into piping bag (no need to fit the bag with a metal tip; simply snip the tip of the piping bag to create a small opening, approx. 1/8 inch).
• Outline perimeter of cookies with white piping-consistency icing. Let set for 1-2 minutes.
• Flood cookies with white piping-consistency icing. Do not let dry; immediately use black icing to pipe three concentric circles radiating out from the center of the cookie. Use a toothpick to drag 8 lines out from the center of the cookie, creating a webbed effect. Let dry for 1-2 hours.

SPIDERWEB FLORENTINES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pulse together pecans and oats in a food processor until finely ground. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add sugars and honey and cook over medium heat, stirring, until sugars are melted and mixture is simmering, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in pecan mixture, flour, salt, and cinnamon. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
• Mound 2 teaspoonfuls of dough, one on top of the other, to form each cookie; place 2 to 3 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Flatten stacked mounds to 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Bake until cookies spread and are golden throughout, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.
• Place chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until melted; remove from heat. Pour chocolate into a parchment cone or resealable plastic bag; snip off a tiny corner. Pipe chocolate onto each cookie in a spiral, working out from center. Pipe lines from outside in and back again, all the way around. Let set at room temperature or in refrigerator before serving.

HALLOWEEN SPIDERWEB COOKIES

Steps:

• Make thin icing: In large bowl, stir together 1 batch icing and 2 tablespoons water. Fit 1 pastry bag with #3-size tip and fill with thin icing.
• Color thicker icing: Divide second batch icing between 2 medium bowls. To icing in 1 bowl, gradually mix in black food coloring until icing is black. Fit second pastry bag with second #3-size tip and fill with black icing.
• Fit third pastry bag with #1-size tip and fill with remaining (thicker) white icing.
• Pipe border: Using pastry bag with #1 tip and thicker white icing, pipe around outer edge of 1 cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies and let set 2 minutes.
• "Flood" to fill center: Using pastry bag with #3 tip and thinner white icing, squirt pool of icing into center of 1 cookie, then spread to edge with small offset spatula. Repeat with second cookie, giving first time to set.
• Pipe circles: Returning to first cookie, using pastry bag with black icing, pipe concentric circles over white icing, beginning in center and ending almost at edge. Repeat with second cookie, giving first time to set.
• Form spiderweb pattern: Returning to first cookie, position tip of toothpick in center and drag through icing out to edge. Wipe tip and repeat 7 more times to make 8 evenly spaced, radiating lines like spokes of wheel.
• Next, position tip at edge, halfway between 2 lines, and drag inward to center to create another line. Wipe tip and repeat 7 more times to make 8 more lines between first 8.
• Repeat process with second iced cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies, working in batches of 2 to allow icing to partially set, but not harden, between steps. Let cookies dry, uncovered, at room temperature 10 hours or overnight. (Once dry, cookies will keep, layered between sheets of wax paper or parchment, in airtight container at room temperature 1 week.)

BAT AND COBWEB COOKIES

Steps:

• Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder together into a large bowl; set aside.
• Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat on medium-high speed until fluffy. Beat in ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Beat in eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low; beat in flour mixture.
• Divide dough into 3 equal pieces, and flatten into disks. Wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough 1/8 inch thick. Transfer dough to a parchment-lined baking sheet, refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Use bat and cobweb cookie cutters to create shapes. Transfer to baking sheets, and refrigerate 15 minutes. Repeat with remaining disks.
• Bake cookies until crisp but not darkened, rotating sheets halfway through, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer sheets to wire racks, let cookies cool completely before decorating with Royal Icing.
• Using desired base color (black for bats, white for cobwebs) and a pastry bag fitted with a very small plain round tip (such as #3), pipe icing on each cookie to form an outline. Fill in with more icing, and smooth with an offset spatula. Embellish before icing dries.
• Bats: Using colored icing, pipe three lines in an arc on the still-wet icing base. For each wing: Drag a wooden skewer across the width in alternating directions. Add eyes after icing has dried.
• Cobwebs: Pipe a spiral of black icing on the still-wet icing base. Pipe decorative dots on points of cookie. Using a wooden skewer, draw lines from the center outward, connecting the center of the web and the decorative dots. Add spiders to webs after icing has dried.

SCARY PEANUT BUTTER SPIDER COOKIES

Steps:

• Position oven racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Separate the chocolate candy balls into larger and smaller balls. The larger balls will make up the spider bodies and the smaller balls the heads.
• Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Cream the sugar and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the vanilla and egg and mix until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. Add the peanut butter and mix until creamy, about 1 minute. Turn the mixer speed down to low and add half of the flour mixture. Beat on medium until incorporated, then turn the speed down to low again and add the rest of the flour mixture. Beat on medium until incorporated.
• Roll the dough by hand into 1-inch balls, place about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets and bake, rotating the pans halfway through, until the cookies are light golden brown and have spread to about 2 inches wide, about 16 minutes. The cookies are done when they smell very peanut buttery and the tops feel dry and slightly firm when pressed with fingers.
• Meanwhile, melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Remove from the heat and let cool briefly so that it is slightly thickened but still pipe-able.
• When the cookies are done, remove them from the oven and transfer them to a cooling rack. Immediately push 2 chocolate candies directly into each hot cookie, putting a smaller chocolate ball toward the edge of the cookie and a larger chocolate ball directly behind it in the center of the cookie.
• When the melted chocolate has thickened slightly, put it into a plastic bag and cut a small hole in the corner to create a piping bag. Pipe 8 legs on each cookie, starting from the point where the 2 chocolate candies meet. Pipe the front 4 legs so that they curve up toward the head and the back 4 legs so that they curve backward beyond the body. Reserve the remaining chocolate in the piping bag for the pupils of the eyes.
• To make eyes, pipe two 1/4-inch circles on the "heads" of each spider with the cake decorating gel. Pipe a tiny dot of the reserved melted chocolate in the center of each to make the pupils.

SPIDERWEB SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and beat until fluffy. Blend in the vanilla. Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt, mixing until just combined. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On a floured surface, roll half of the dough to 1/8-inch thick. Cut into circles using a 3-inch round cookie cutter or the top of a drinking glass. Gather and reroll scraps. Repeat with remaining dough. Place the cookies on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes, until just golden. Do not allow cookies to brown.
• To decorate, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave in a heatproof bowl for 1 minutes. The chips may look unmelted, but stir them with a spoon to see if they have actually softened before putting them in for another minute, if necessary. Spoon the melted chocolate into a zipper-lock bag. Seal the bag, pressing out any air. Use a toothpick to make a very tiny hole in one corner of the bag to release a very thin stream of chocolate for writing.
• To make the spiderwebs, spread white royal icing smoothly over the surface. Immediately, before the icing can set, pipe a spiral of chocolate over the surface, starting in the middle and working outward. Starting in the center, use a toothpick to pull outward through the icing, making a spiderweb design.
• With beaters or a standing mixer, whip the egg white and lemon juice until frothy. At medium speed, beat in the confectioners' sugar, a little at a time, until the mixture is thick but still liquid enough to beat. Then beat on high until the mixture is thick and glossy, about 3 minutes. Cover the surface with plastic wrap while waiting to use it. Royal icing will set to a firm, glossy finish when applied to a cookie. The icing can be stored, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to a week.

SPIDER BISCUITS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 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.
• 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.
• 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.