Halloween is my favorite, and these Malted Milk Ball Spider Cookies fit the bill for delicious snacking on a spooky fun holiday!
A tasty chocolate chip cookie dough filled with crushed Maltesers candies with cute googly-eyed spiders with Maltesers bodies on top and piped chocolate legs. Kids and adults both will appreciate the fun look and the flavor of these delicious Halloween cookies!
This post and recipe was created for #HalloweenTreatsWeek! I was sent samples by some of the sponsor companies but as always opinions are 100% mine.
Another fun one is my easy decorated Halloween shortbread cookie recipe.
For ease of browsing, here are all of my cookie and bar recipes. Thanks for stopping by!
Delicious Spider Cookies
Y’all. These spider cookies are the cutest! And they’re also truly delicious.
The base recipe is the very solid chocolate chip cookie dough recipe from Stella Parks of Serious Eats and the wonderful cookbook BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts.
I cut the sugar by just a bit to make room for all the sugar in the 6 ounces of chopped Maltesers Malted Milk Balls I mixed in.
Pastry Chef Online Participates in Affiliate Programs. If you make a purchase through one of my links, I may earn a small commission. For more information click to read my disclosure policy
Thanks to sponsor, Wilton, I had super cute candy eyes which I “glued” (with royal icing) onto whole Maltesers to make round fat spider bodies.
As soon as the cookies came out of the oven, I nestled a spider body into the center of each cookie, and once they cooled, I used melted chocolate mixed with a touch of coconut oil to pipe the legs. You could also use chocolate candy melts.
How To Decorate Spider Cookies for Halloween
These guys are really easy to make. You could even start with store bought dough in your favorite flavor–peanut butter, chocolate chip, etc–and then just add the decorations after baking. Here’s a quick step by step rundown of how to make these guys.
- Use royal icing to glue the sugar eyes onto the malted milk balls and let them dry overnight.
- Bake the cookies and place a spider body in the center of each one as soon as they come out of the oven. When you do it, be sure to press them into the baked cookie to make sure enough chocolate melts to hold them in place.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely.
- Melt the chocolate candy melts (or chocolate chips and oil) in the microwave on medium power.
- Place in a zip top bag and snip off a very tiny corner.
- Pipe 8 legs onto your spider cookies.
- Allow the chocolate to cool completely and set up.
- Enjoy!
How To Make All Your Cookies the Same Size
Using a cookie scoop is the best and easiest way I’ve found to get cookies of uniform size.
They are easy to use and are not expensive, so you can get some in different sizes, depending on how large you want your cookies to be.
This is the cookie scoop I use to make these (and most other) cookies. You’ll end up with lovely 3″ cookies if you use this guy.
More Halloween Recipes
If you're looking for a savory treat, you'll love the horseradish kick of my Devilish Halloween Deviled Eggs. And if you want more cookies, you may like my soft, lemony Halloween black and white cookies.
In a donut mood? I think you'll really enjoy my pumpkin spice donuts. Packed with pumpkin and pumpkin spice in the dough and rolled in pumpkin spice sugar, they are delicious little bites of fall.
If you're having a Halloween party for grown ups and want to leave the cute Halloween treats for the kids and serve something a little more elegant, you will really love the look and taste of my Chocolate Halloween Cake!
More Halloween Treats Week Posts
- Pumpkin Patch Graveyard Eclair from Big Bear's Wife
- Pumpkin Empanadas from Pook's Pantry
- Malted Milk Ball Spider Cookies from Pastry Chef Online (you're here!)
- Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes from Mrs Happy Homemaker
- Purple Velvet Halloween Layer Cake from Love and Confections
- Eyeball Jello Shots from I am a Honey Bee
- Monster Fudge from 4 Sons R Us
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars from A Blender Mom
- Vampire Ice Cream Floats from Daily Dish Recipes
- Graveyard Pie from Eat Move Make
- Easy Skeleton Cake Pops from Pint Sized Baker
- Swiss Meringue Spooky Skull from Kudos Kitchen
- Candy Corn Cheesecake Mousse from The Spiffy Cookie
- Melting Witch Candy Popcorn Halloween Party Mix from Lady Behind The Curtain
- Dragon's Eggs from A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
- Graveyard Dip from Mildly Meandering
- Eyeball Cake Balls from Strawberry Blondie Kitchen
- White Chocolate Ghost Cupcakes from The Beard and The Baker
- Halloween Chocolate Blossom Sprinkle Cookies from House of Nash Eats
- Rice Krispie Haunted House from Savory Experiments
- Halloween Snack Mix from Katie's Cucina
- Monster Rice Krispies from For the Love of Food
Easy Halloween Spider Cookies (made with Malted Milk Balls)
Don't let its small price and small size fool you. The Escali Primo is an accurate and easy-to-use food scale that I have used for years. It's easy to store, easy to use, has a tare function, and easily switches between grams and ounces/pounds for accurate measurements.
It will help me and other readers so much if you take a moment to rate and leave a review for this recipe.
You can use the stars to rate 1-5 (5 is best), and leave a review in the comments. It helps me make adjustments if any are needed, and comments help others decide whether the recipe is worth making.
Other ways to share include pinning, and/or sharing on your favorite social media platform.
Thank you so much for taking the time!
Malted Milk Ball Spider Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 1 ½ cups malted milk balls chopped
- 12 oz all purpose flour (I used King Arthur)
- 8 oz unsalted butter (2 sticks)
- 7 oz light brown sugar (1 scant cup, packed)
- 6 oz white sugar (1 cup minus 2 Tablespoons)
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt (I used Morton's)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (I used Adams clear vanilla)
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated with a microplane)
- 1 large egg
For the Decorations
- 36 malted milk balls I used Maltesers
- 72 small candy eyes (or you could pipe eyes on if you prefer)
- 1 Tablespoon royal icing (for the glue)
- ½ cup chocolate chips*
- 2 teaspoons coconut oil*
Instructions
For the Cookies
- Set a rack in the center of your oven and preheat oven to 350F.
- Line 3 cookie sheets with parchment. Set aside.
- In a bowl, stir the flour together with the chopped malted milk balls.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand mixer), mix butter, both sugars, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and vanilla extract. Mix on low until smooth and then beat at medium speed for about 5 minutes until light.
- Thoroughly mix in the egg.
- Add the flour and candy mixture to the mixer and mix on low speed to combine evenly.
- Use a cookie scoop to portion 36 balls of dough, 12 to a tray.
- Bake one tray at a time until the edges are golden brown but the centers are just a bit pale, about 14-15 minutes.
- As each tray comes out, quickly place a malted milk ball with eyes already attached in the center of each cookie and press down gently. Allow cookies to sit on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
- Once cool, pipe on 8 chocolate legs.
To Make the Decorations
- Use royal icing to glue two sugar eyes to each malted milk ball. Set aside to dry completely.
- Place the chocolate chips and coconut oil in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on medium power for 1 minute. Stir. Continue heating in 15 second bursts on medium power, stirring in between, until the chocolate and oil are completely smooth and warm but not hot.
- Scrape the melted chocolate mixture into a piping bag fitted with a #2 tip or in a zip top bag with a very tiny corner snipped off and pipe legs on each cookie.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Notes
Nutrition
Hi, y'all! I hope you've enjoyed this post and hopefully also learned a thing or two.
If you like my style, I invite you to sign up for my occasional newsletter, The Inbox Pastry Chef.
Expect updates on new and tasty recipes as well as a bit of behind-the-scenes action. I hope to see you there!
Thanks for spending time with me today. Take care, and have a lovely day.
Disclaimer: These posts and recipes are part of the week-long event, #HalloweenTreatsWeek but all opinions are 100% mine! We would like to Thank our amazing sponsors: Dixie Crystals, Adam's Extract, Wilton, Sweets and Treats Shop and Treat Street USA!
Join in Today!
These are so cute, Jenni! I love how easy they are to make, too! 🙂
Thanks, Valentina! I’m all about the easy, so the cute was a bonus! 🙂
I’m not a malted milk ball fan, but I would love these. The spider is super cute and probably the only spider I would say that about.
Yeah, cute edible spiders > creepy irl spiders! lol =)
These cookies look spookily delish!
Thanks, Betsy! I laugh whenever I look at their big old eyes! lol 🙂
I can’t stop giggling at these! Love ’em, but I really want to eat them. ALL.
I thought they were too cute to eat, too. Until I ate one. Then all bets were off! lol