Looking for fun appetizer ideas for your kid's Halloween party? This cute Halloween Spider Bread makes a great healthy savoury addition to your spooky themed table display.
Easier than you think and kids and adults both enjoy tearing him up bit by bit and dipping the delicious bread into the hole in his back, filled with your chosen dip?
We were invited to a friend's Halloween party, so we pulled out all the stops to bring some spooky yet tasty nibbles with us!
How to make Halloween Spider Bread?
📖 Step by Step Recipe
Halloween Spider Bread
Ingredients
- 14 grams yeast - 2 x 7g packets
- 500 ml water - warm
- 2 tablespoon sugar - either caster or granulated
- 60 ml olive oil
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon basil - dried
- 1 tablespoon oregano - dried
- 2 teaspoon garlic - powder
- 45 grams Parmigiano Reggiano
- 750 grams Strong Bread flour
- 1 egg - Whisked & mixed with 1 teaspoon of water for eggwash
To decorate
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds (optional - sprinkle
- 2 Edible eyes - You can use fondant or olives instead?
- 2 Fangs - Use fondant dipped in red colouring or red peppers?
Your choice of dip we used our Homemade BBQ Sauce
Instructions
- Place the yeast, warm water and white sugar into a bowl and mix together, set to one side for 5 mins.
- Stir in the olive oil, salt, herbs, garlic powder, cheese, 375 grams of the flour into the yeast mixture
- Once mixed together gradually mix the other 375 grams of flour to the mixture and form your dough ball
- Knead the bread dough ball for 10 mins until its smooth and elasticity
- Place in an oiled bowl, turn the dough ball over to cover it with oil and cover the bowl with a damp towel, leave to rise for 1 hr
- Preheat the oven to 180°c Fan / 200°C/ 400° f / gas mark 6 whilst you shape the spiderOnce the bread has doubled in size, place it down on a flat surface and push down on the bread to release any excess air.Cut into half, then one of the halves in half again. You should have 3 dough pieces of dough (see image)
- Roll the largest and one of the smaller dough into a ball. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.This is the spiders head and body, leave a small gap for the legs to fit in between.
- Divide the last dough ball into 4 pieces and roll into long thin sausage shapes. They will try to shrink whilst rolling, but can be stretched in the next step.
- Place the four leg strips centrally between the head and body.Point 4 up either side of the head.Point the remaining 4 down eithwe side of his body
- Brush Egg wash over all exposed areas of the spider.
- (optional) Sprinkle with poppy seeds Bake in the oven for 25-30 mins, watch him grow and get darker!
- Leave to cool for at least 15 minutes, then cut a hole in the spiders back big enough to fit a dipping dish in.
- Pour your chosen dip in the dish, we used our Homemade BBQ Sauce.
- Animate your spider, we used fondant icing, dipped in red food colouring to create fangs and some edible eyes.
Video
Nutrition
This post was updated on 14/03/2025 by placing the recipe card further up the page to give users a better experience.
Read on for more tips and tricks.
What flavourings to add to spider bread?
You can use any dough flavour you like but we wanted to keep the vampires away! So opted for garlic, herb & cheese-based bread dough.
If you don't want cheese, herbs or garlic simply leave them out or use different herbs?
How to knead bread by hand or mixer?
Once all the flour has been combined and stirred through to create a dough it is time to start kneading.
Kneading by hand, sprinkle flour on to your worktop and push the dough away from you using the palms of your hands.
Fold back into itself and repeat for 10 minutes.
Its a workout in its self kneading bread, we really want to treat ourselves to a Kitchen Aid to help speed this process up.
10 minutes of manual kneading is completed in 2 mins with a Kitchen Aid, but they come with a big price tag!
Until we get the fund for this Luke will have to carry on using his hands!
10 minutes of kneading later our bread mix is ready to leave to proof
How to proof bread?
Place kneaded dough into an oiled bowl, turn to cover other side with oil too.
Then cover with a damp tea towel.
After 1 hour your dough should have doubled in size, if not leave for longer until it has.
How to shape bread dough into a spider?
Now the fun begins, separate the dough into half and then one of the halves into another half!
Use the largest piece of dough as the back of the spider.
And one of the smaller pieces for the spiders head.
Place on a baking tray, lined with parchment paper.
Leave a small gap ready for the legs to be added.
Now, all that is missing is your Halloween Spider Bread legs!
Use the final piece of dough to split into 4 even sized legs.
Rolling the legs out can be tricky they have a habit of shrinking back again.
Roll into long thin sausages. When you lay them down on the tray they do stay put.
Layer the legs centrally in the small gap between spiders head and body
Point 4 up either side of the head.
Point the remaining 4 down either side of his/her body
Now whisk an egg with 1 teaspoon of water and apply a thin layer all over.
We used Poppy seeds to sprinkle on our spider after the egg coat to give him a hairy look!
How long does it take to cook Halloween Spider Bread?
Cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes.
Once cooked leave to cool at least 15 minutes
Now cut a round shape in the back of the spider, to the size of your dish you are putting inside.
We made this Halloween Spider Bread with his back full of our delicious Homemade BBQ sauce.
Perfect to dip his legs in!
How to decorate and animate Spider bread?
We gave our one a little Halloween Spider a cute face and fangs, at the kid's request.
It really brought him to life!
Using edible eyes and fondant dipper in red food colouring.
You can use whatever you want? Such as olives for eyes and slices of red pepper for fangs?
What sauce to add to serve with spider bread?
We used our BBQ sauce.
Alternatively, for the Halloween Spider Bread back you can add other sauces
- Cheese Sauce
- Garlic Mayo
- Chilli Sauce
- Sweet Chilli Sauce
- Burger Sauce
- Garlic Butter Dip
We hope you enjoyed making this Halloween Spider Bread with us. Why not make some Snake Breadsticks to add to your Halloween Party food.
Please check out our Cute Spider Halloween Biscuit’s too!
If you enjoyed making bread why not try out this delicious Olive & Herb Focaccia Bread too.
Carole Guy says
Can this be frozen or made ahead of time? I have a Halloween party and would love to do this!