These cute Shortbread Spider Biscuits are definitely a treat no tricks here!
Perfect Halloween party food idea for the kids, using my childhood favourite chocolate, Rolo's, and my daughters favourite Kinder Bueno.
How to make shortbread spider biscuits?
We show you step by step how to make these adorable treats from scratch. Continue reading past the recipe for more tips and tricks.
📖 Step by Step Recipe
Shortbread Spider Biscuits – Cute Halloween Party Idea
Ingredients
Shortbread Biscuit
- 100 g Unsalted Butter - softened, we used Stork as already soft
- 50 g Caster Sugar
- 150 g Self Raising Flour
- 3 drops Vanilla Extract (optional) - Use whatever flavouring you like?
Decorating your choice of any chocolate for the spider body
- 1 pack Rolos Chocolate's or Kinder Bueno Chocolate - Or Aero/ Maltesers/ Lindt Balls you choose!
- 24 edible eyes
- 100 g Chocolate - for melting
Instructions
Shortbread biscuit (you can buy shop brought biscuits to save time)
- Preheat oven at 180°C,160°c fan, gas mark 4. Line two baking trays with parchment paper
- Place 100 g Unsalted Butter into mixing bowl, whisk until soft, gradually add 50 g Caster Sugar, whisk until light and fluffy.We used a handheld whisk to help speed this up.Then stir in 3 drops Vanilla Extract (optional)Use a wooden spoon combine the 150 g Self Raising Flour with the butter and sugar mixture until it forms a smooth biscuit dough.
- Form the mixture into a dough with your hands, roll the dough directly onto the parchment paper and use cutters to make uniform circles.You can make more cookie cuttings by rerolling the scraps together and repeating.
- Transfer the parchment paper of biscuits onto a baking sheet. Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes until golden, cool on a wire rack before decorating
To decorate
- Melt the 100 g Chocolate in a microwaveable bowl on the lowest setting in the microwave, stir every 30 seconds until fully melted. Fill the melted chocolate into a piping bag with a small cut in the corner to pipe 8 legs on the biscuit.
- Use the melted chocolate as glue to stick your choice of chocolate we used 1 pack Rolos Chocolate's or Kinder Bueno Chocolate for the body and finally the stuck the 24 edible eyes on to the body using more melted chocolate.
- Leave to cool and the chocolate will harden and act like a glue..
Video
Nutrition
Quicker method
Of course, being Halloween, if you did want a trick....... Then cheat and buy shop-bought biscuits to save yourself from having to bake your own!
We love any excuse to get our aprons on, so we made our shortbread biscuits. Furthermore, the kids eagerly await the mixing bowl and spoon to lick clean!
Make shortbread biscuits from scratch
Shortbread biscuits are very simple to make at home, you only need 3 basic ingredients (which you probably already have in) butter, caster sugar and flour.
Equipment
You need a handheld mixer or stand mixer, which makes it quicker to mix the ingredients for shortbread biscuits.
You will need some cookie cutters, you can use any size you like.
If you use a 3-inch cutter, you will get 12 biscuits. You can use smaller or bigger cutters as desired. You will also need a rolling pin.
You may find the shortbread dough sticks to the worktop despite the flour sprinkled over. Making it hard to transfer to a baking sheet.
We recommend cutting them directly onto the parchment paper on a baking tray to prevent this.
How to add flavour to Shortbread biscuits
Try adding vanilla extract into you shortbread dough to add some flavour or you can use any other flavouring you like, there are so many to choose from!
Decorating
Time for the fun to start decorating the biscuits!! We used Menier Swiss Milk Chocolate, as it is the perfect chocolate for melting!
Melt chocolate in microwave
Place the the chocolate in a microwavable bowl; if your microwave has the option set to the lowest and turn it on for 30 seconds, stir and return for 30 seconds. Keep repeating for 30 seconds until entirely melted.
Melt chocolate over pan heat
Break the chocolate into small pieces in a heatproof bowl (preferably ceramic or Pyrex glass).
Bring a pan of water to a simmer and place the bowl on top of the pan.
Stir until the chocolate has melted. Do not let water from the pan spill into the chocolate.
Piping spider legs
Transfer the melted chocolate into a piping bag, snip a small corner off or use a tiny nozzle to pipe 8 spider legs directly onto the shortbread biscuit.
Next, use the melted chocolate to stick the body on top of the legs, then the eyeballs onto the Body!
You can choose your favourite chocolate instead of Rolo's and Kinder Bueno. On our shortlist were Lindor Lindt Balls, Maltesers or Aero Bubbles.
The edible eyes we used are so cute and bring the spider to life.
We took these to a Halloween Party with us. They went down really well with all the kids and equally well with the adults!
Love their little faces, so much character!
If you like these Shortbread Spider biscuits, and looking for more Halloween party food ideas? Make sure to check out our Halloween Spider Bread and Snake Breadsticks.
Judy todd says
This recipe was easy to make and tasted great, I made them for a charity event and every biscuit was sold. Is it a recipe I could freeze so that I can make large quantities for charity events?
Luke and Kay says
Hi Judy
Yes you can freeze the biscuits.
Allow them to cool completely after baking. Then, place them in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze until solid. Once solid, transfer them to a freezer-safe bag or container. They should last for about 3 months.
Make sure to defrost all the way through at room temperature before serving. 🙂
Debbie says
Made these yesterday and they all went in 1 day! The best shortbread ever… I didn’t have ready made eyes, so improvised with white icing. They looked great & tasted better than expected.
Luke says
Thank you for trying our Shortbread Spider Biscuits, Debbie! We're so glad you enjoyed them and that they were a hit with your family and friends. I'm glad to hear that you found a way to make them even more special with your own creative touch. 🙂
We hope you'll enjoy them again soon!
Ramona says
This is such a cute idea for Halloween! They look great and we all love shortbread. My daughter was looking for a recipe to make for Halloween and this is definitely the one to make. Great for kids to have some fun too. Thanks for sharing!
Kay says
Thank you so much, Ramona 🙂
We hope your daughter loves our Halloween spider biscuits as much as our kids did lol
Enjoy!!
Elizabeth says
These are so adorable and perfect for Halloween! We loved them!
Luke says
Thanks, Elizabeth 🙂
Glad you liked the biscuits, always a great recipe to make with the kids for Halloween 🙂
Sabrina says
Too cute! I made them for a kids party and the kids loved them. I’m making them again for school Halloween party. Thanks, this is a great one!
Luke says
Thank you so much, Sabrina
Hope everyone enjoyed the spider biscuits at the Halloween party 🙂
Debra says
Oh, I can't believe how easy these were to make...and so incredibly cute! I cannot wait to serve them at our neighborhood block party.
Luke says
Thank you, Debra
Hope everyone enjoys our spider biscuits 🙂
Jere Cassidy says
Super cute idea. I love shortbread cookies, but good thought on buying premade cookies to decorate.
Luke says
Thank you Jere 🙂
Homemade is always best but always good to have that quick option 😉
Enjoy!!
Gillian says
These look fantastic for the kids parties brilliant idea