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Chocolate Covered Spiders

October 21st, 2012

Halloween’s creeping up on us! If you’re in search of spooky treats to distract hungry zombies (and maybe a human or two), arm yourself with an array of these sweet and savoury critters. You can even give them markings with sprinkles or decorative icing; I kept mine minimalistic.

Chocolate covered peanut butter and pretzel spiders

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter & Pretzel Spiders
makes 12 creepy crawlies

1 cup + 1 tbsp icing sugar
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
5/8 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
Classic style pretzels (48 + more for casualties)
12 oz chocolate (dark or milk; whatever your preference may be)
Silver sugar balls

Combine icing sugar, butter, peanut butter and vanilla. Form into 12 balls and place on a foil-lined baking sheet.
Cut the curvy parts of the pretzels (these will become the spider legs) with a sharp knife. This works best if you cut both of the joints at once and keep your board clear of crunchy crumbs.

Cutting the pretzel for spider legs

Stick eight legs into each peanut butter ball and place in the freezer for at least a 1/2 hour.

Peanut butter and pretzel spiders, ready for chocolate coating

Melt chocolate in a double boiler.
Using two large spoons, coat the spiders. Scoop up some chocolate with one spoon and place a spider on top to coat the bottom. Then, working quickly, spoon chocolate with the other spoon over the legs and body of the spider. (Note: I found it best to take one spider out of the freezer to coat at a time, since the peanut butter ball needs to be very firm to prevent the legs from drooping while they are being coated with chocolate.) Place on a second foil-lined baking sheet and add four sugar balls for eyes.
When all of the spiders are coated, put them in the fridge for 20-30 minutes to firm up.

Happy Halloween!

Chocolate Covered Spiders