Spider Infested Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

What better time of year than Halloween to serve up some creepy-looking Spider Infested Oatmeal Raisin Cookies made using plump juicy California Raisins?

Halloween may be the best time to make and serve spider-filled cookies, but I can think of other occasions where they would be appropriate too.

It would be fun to make them to bring along on a camping trip, or to serve at a bug-themed birthday party, or to scare someone on April Fool’s Day, or to give to a friend who happens to be studying arachnology (the study of spiders.)

I’ll probably stick to putting spiders in my cookies at Halloween like I did last year when I made Spider Infested Chocolate Chip Cookies. My original chocolate spiders looked pretty cool but were not terribly realistic. I intentionally made them that way. I figured most people would want cuter spiders than creepy ones on their cookies. I was wrong. People were totally excited about the creep-out factor of the sweet Halloween treats.

So this year I decided it would be fun to challenge myself to make more realistic-looking spiders that would infest a batch of homemade cookies and found that creating them out of raisins was perfect.

Plump juicy raisins make great spider bodies, but better yet, when cut into thin long pieces, they become somewhat translucent and scraggly around the edges and make amazing-looking legs.

It only seemed natural to put the raisin spiders into oatmeal raisin cookies.

I’m a huge fan of oatmeal raisin cookies, but my husband hates them, so I don’t make them very often.

I believe it’s been several years since I’ve baked a batch. It was hard keeping my hands off of these cookies once they came out of the oven. I could easily eat an entire tray full even though they were infested with spiders.

How to make Spider Infested Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Instructions:

• Select 16 large plump and juicy raisins for the spider bodies and 16 very small raisins for the spider heads. if you can’t find really small raisins then cut larger ones in half and roll them into balls.
• Flatten the larger raisins out to create a nice-sized spider body.
• Flatten the remaining raisins as thin as you can.
• Using a sharp knife, cut thin long strips out of the raisins for the spider legs.
• Create enough legs for all 16 of your spiders.

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Beat butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time mixing to combine. Then add vanilla.
• Whisk together the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add to the wet ingredients and stir just to combine.
• Stir in the oats and 1 1/2 cups of raisins.

• Scoop out two-thirds of a cup of cookie dough, roll into a ball, and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Repeat creating a total of 16 cookies. Flatten the cookies slightly. These cookies are really big, which helps keep them moist and chewy on the inside.
• Arrange your raisin spiders on top. Start by placing the eight legs on the cookie then put the large raisin body over top and add a head.
• Bake for 18 to 22 min. until the edges turn golden brown.

As the cookies bake they will spread and the parts of the spiders may move away from each other. As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, fix your spiders. I had to move a few heads back to the bodies and even used tweezers to move a few of the legs.

The trick to keeping the legs close to the raisin bodies is to have them touch in the middle underneath the raisin, like in the second cookie pictured above.

When the cookies spread, the legs will move, but won’t separate from the body, as they did in the third cookie pictured above. A few of those legs were spaced too far out from the middle.

• Allow the cookies to cool and then go have fun creeping out your friends and family.

Print

Spider Infested Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Prep Time

30 mins

Cook Time

18 mins

Total Time

48 mins

 

How to make Oatmeal Raisin cookies look infested with raisin spiders

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Halloween

Keyword: halloween cookies, oatmeal rasin cookies, spider cookies

Servings: 16

Author: Beth Jackson Klosterboer

Ingredients

Raisin Spiders:

• 48 California Raisins

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies:

• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour 7 ounces
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups California raisins

Instructions

1. Select 16 large plump and juicy raisins for the spider bodies and 16 very small raisins for the spider heads.
2. Flatten the remaining raisins as thin as you can.
3. Using a sharp knife, cut thin long strips out of the raisins for the spider legs.
4. Create enough legs for all 16 of your spiders.
5. Preheat oven to 350°F.
6. Beat butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
7. Add one egg at a time mixing to combine.
8. Add vanilla.
9. Whisk together the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder.
10. Add to the wet ingredients and stir just to combine.
11. Stir in the oats and 1 1/2 cups of raisins.
12. Scoop out two thirds of a cup of cookie dough, roll into a ball, and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
13. Repeat creating a total of 16 cookies. Flatten the cookies slightly. These cookies are really big, which helps keep them moist and chewy on the inside.
14. Arrange your raisin spiders on top. Start by placing the eight legs on the cookie then put the large raisin body over top and add a head.
15. Bake for 18 to 22 min. until the edges turn golden brown.
16. Allow the cookies to cool and then go have fun creeping out your friends and family.

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