Scary Berry Spider Web Cookies

How cute are these spider web cookies?? I have a feeling I will be making these all October long, especially since I've already made them twice! The first time I made them, I followed the recipe below exactly and they were absolutely delicious. Everyone kept asking me for the recipe and coming back for seconds... and thirds! The second time however, I was in a major time-crunch, so I simply made my favorite store-bought cookie dough, followed the instructions for the topping and voila! Everyone still raved about them and it was my little secret.

I'd love to hear about your favorite festive Halloween recipes in the comments section below! Plus, download our Scary Berries eBook for even more Halloween inspiration!

Ingredients:

for the cookies

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

zest of one lemon

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup cream cheese

2 ¼ cup all purpose flour

pinch of salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoons ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

for the topping

3 cups confectioners’ sugar + 1/2 cup more for black icing

¼ cup milk

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

powdered orange food color

powdered black food color

24 California Giant blackberries 

Instructions:

for the cookies

Sift together flour, salt, and spices. Whisk together in bowl to fully incorporate spices and set aside. Cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest. Add lemon juice and cream cheese. With mixer on lowest speed, gradually add in flour mixture. Mix only until incorporated. Shape dough into disk and wrap with plastic wrap. Place dough in refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to a ¼ inch thickness. Cut 3 1/2" - 4” circles from the dough with a cookie cutter and place them on parchment lined baking sheets. Gather remnants as necessary, re-roll and cut. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown at the edges. Remove from oven, but allow to cool on the tray for 3-4 minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Decorate cookies as desired and add ribbon if appropriate. Store in an airtight container.

for the topping

Put confectioners’ sugar, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla in a bowl and whisk well. Place a few tablespoons of the white icing in a freezer bag for piping the eyes. Set aside. Divide the remainder in half in two separate bowl. Color one bowl with orange food color, whisking until fully combined.  Add 1/2 cup of confectioners’ sugar to the other bowl and color with black food color, whisking until fully combined. Place the colored icings in two piping bags.

Cut the tip from the orange icing and make an outline around the circumference of the cookies. Allow this to harden, uncovered, at room temperature. When hardened, fill in the circles by piping icing into them and evenly distributing the icing with the end of a toothpick. Allow to harden.

Use the black icing to make a big hexagon inside the circles with the sides of the hexagon slightly curved. Make a smaller hexagon inside the first hexagon and then place a dot in the center. Connect the points of the hexagons with icing starting at the outside and working toward the center dot. Allow to harden.

Pipe a small line of icing near one of the outside hexagon lines and gently press a blackberry into the icing to hold the blackberry in place. Use the icing to create spider legs starting at the top of the berry and going down to the cookie. Use white icing to make two eyes on each spider. Allow to harden before serving.