Spicy Spider Bites
Author: 
 
Makes about 8 dozen small (2-inch) cookies. You can make them larger or just lightly frost the rest when you get tired of making spiders!
Ingredients
  • ½ cup butter, slightly softened
  • ½ cup shortening
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 5½ cups all purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1½ teaspoons ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup molasses
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • *****
  • Royal Icing - use your favorite recipe OR try mine:
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons meringue powder (I use Wiltons brand, available in the cake decorating section)
  • ¼ cup water
  • ******
  • Dark icing, melted chocolate, dark brown coated candy...whatever you want to use for the spider.
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl (a stand mixer is helpful) beat together the butter, shortening, brown sugar, and white sugar until well combined.
  2. Add eggs and beat until incorporated.
  3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, salt, and baking powder.
  4. In a small bowl combine the molasses and sour cream. Whisk in the baking soda. It will foam up and lighten in color.
  5. At low speed, add ⅓ of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. When most of the flour is mixed in, add ⅓ of the molasses mixture. Repeat twice, scraping the sides of the bowl often. Do not overbeat!
  6. Chill dough for at least 2 hours. Overnight is better.
  7. Heat oven to 375.
  8. Roll out ¼ of the dough at a time, leaving the rest in the refrigerator. Dough should be about ¼-inch thick. Cut into circles and place on parchment covered baking sheet, 1 inch apart.
  9. Bake small circles for 8-9 minutes, larger circles for 9-10 minutes. Touch the top of one cookie gently. If your finger leaves a mark, give them another minute. For crispy cookies, add an extra minute or two.
  10. Cool on a rack.
  11. To make royal icing: Combine powdered sugar, meringue powder, and water. Beat with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes, until thick and fluffy.
  12. Using a pastry bag and small tip (or a heavy zipper bag with the tip cut off) pipe spider webbing onto cool cookies: make a straight line from top to bottom, then side to side. Then two more lines diagonally, like cutting a pie into 8 pieces. Pipe near the outer edge of the cookie, swooping from one line to the next. Do it again closer to the center. That's it!
  13. Hint: You can also coat the entire cookie in a thin layer of icing, let it dry, and then draw the web on with a food color pen like Wilton's FoodWriter.
  14. You can make the spider out of dark chocolate frosting (this is one of those times I'd encourage buying a can of frosting for simplicity), ganache, or by piping melted chocolate for the legs and head, and using a dark brown M&M for the body.
Recipe by The Rowdy Baker at http://www.therowdybaker.com/?p=5045