Spider Biscuits is a modern British recipe for a classic Halloween biscuit (cookie) of a baked chocolate dough covered with cream cheese icing (frosting) decorated with a spider web pattern and finished with a jellybean and liquorice spider. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Spider Biscuits.
For the Decoration:
black liquorice shoestrings
black jellybeans
black decorator's gel
Method:
Cream together the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat into the mixture until thoroughly combined then stir in the melted chocolate. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt then stir into the mixture until you have a fairly stiff dough.
Divide the resultant dough in half and shape each piece into a log about 20cm long. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to firm.
Cut the chilled rolls into discs about 6mm thick and lay these 3cm apart on an ungreased baking tray. Transfer to an oven pre-heated to 170°C and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the biscuits feel set when touched lightly. Remove from the oven and allow to set on the baking tray for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
When they are cold, prepare the cream cheese icing. Beat together the cream cheese and icing sugar until you have a spreadable icing. Use about 1 tsp of this to spread over half the biscuits. Top with the other half so you have a sandwich then cover the top of the sandwich with more of the icing.
Allow to set then use the black decorator's gel to pipe black rings on top of the biscuits. Use a toothpick to draw lines from the centre of the biscuits to the outside (this forms the 'spokes' of the spider webs). Now make spider by setting black jellybeans in the centres of the biscuits and adding liquorice legs.
