Dessert

Easy Halloween Cookies with Spider and Bat Decorations Recipe

ByCleo Brixton February 4, 2026February 4, 2026

Introduction

These easy Halloween cookies are fun to make and perfect for spooky celebrations. With chocolate chips, cute spider and bat decorations, they’re sure to delight kids and adults alike. Get ready to bake festive treats that taste as good as they look!

A round black plate holds seven golden brown cookies evenly spaced. Each cookie is decorated as either a spider or a bat. Five cookies have chocolate spider bodies made of two round chocolate balls, with white and dark chocolate stripes on the back and eyes on the head. The spider legs are drawn with dark chocolate around the body on the cookie surface. Two cookies are decorated as bats, with a round chocolate piece that has eyes in the center top of the cookie, and two black and white Oreo cookie halves as wings attached to the chocolate piece. The plate rests on a white marbled surface. Photo taken with an iphone --ar 4:5 --v 7

Ingredients

150g butter, softened
50g caster sugar
100g light brown soft sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
250g plain flour
¼ tsp baking powder
100g milk or dark chocolate chips
60g dark chocolate, melted
60g royal icing sugar, mixed with 2 tsp water
20 Maltesers
5 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
10 caramel-filled chocolates

Instructions

Step 1: Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
Step 2: Beat the butter, caster sugar, and brown sugar together with an electric whisk until light and fluffy.
Step 3: Add the vanilla extract and egg, then beat again to combine well.
Step 4: Stir in the plain flour and baking powder using a wooden spoon until a stiff dough forms, then fold in the chocolate chips.
Step 5: Divide the dough into 20 pieces and roll each into a ball. Place them on the prepared baking sheets spaced apart to allow for spreading.
Step 6: Gently press the tops of the cookies flat using your palm or the bottom of a glass.
Step 7: Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden around the edges, then cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
Step 8: To make spider cookies, lay out 10 cooled cookies. Pipe dots of royal icing onto the backs of two Maltesers and stick them onto each cookie as the spider’s body and head.
Step 9: Using melted chocolate, pipe eight legs around each spider’s body. Add eyes by piping small royal icing dots on the heads, topping with tiny chocolate pupils. Optionally, decorate the bodies with royal icing as desired.
Step 10: For bat cookies, separate the cream-filled sandwich cookies and scrape off the cream carefully.
Step 11: Cut the remaining chocolate cookie halves into semicircles with a serrated knife to form bat wings.
Step 12: Use royal icing to stick a caramel-filled chocolate in the center of each cooled cookie, then attach two semicircle wings on either side with more icing.
Step 13: Pipe eyes onto the caramel chocolates using royal icing and melted chocolate to finish the bats.

Tips & Variations

Use milk or dark chocolate chips depending on your preference for sweetness and flavor.
For extra spooky decorations, try adding edible googly eyes or colored sprinkles to the spiders and bats.
If royal icing is tricky, melted white chocolate can be a good alternative for sticking decorations.

Storage

Store the decorated cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Keep them away from heat and humidity to maintain crispness. If needed, reheat gently in a low oven for a few minutes to refresh texture.

How to Serve

A round black slate plate holds seven round golden-brown cookies decorated as Halloween creatures. Five cookies have spider shapes made from two round milk chocolate balls stacked as the body and head, with thin dark brown lines creating spider legs and details on the bodies. Their eyes are small white dots with black pupils. Two cookies are decorated as bats, each with two dark chocolate Oreo cookie halves placed at the top as wings and a single round milk chocolate piece with eyes as the face in the center. The background is a white marbled texture with more plain cookies scattered around the plate edges. Photo taken with an iphone --ar 4:5 --v 7

Serve this delicious recipe with your favorite sides.

FAQs

Can I make the dough ahead of time?

Yes, you can prepare the cookie dough and refrigerate it for up to 24 hours before baking. Let it come to room temperature briefly before shaping and baking.

How do I prevent the cookies from spreading too much?

Be sure to chill the dough if your kitchen is warm and avoid flattening the cookies too thin before baking. Spacing them well on the tray also helps keep them from merging.