Spooky Spiders- pretzel,peanut butter and chocolate treats.

Spooky Spider treats are easy to make and delicious!!  Pretzels, peanut butter and chocolate is one of my favorite combinations!!  Full recipe is at the bottom of the post. 

Mix peanut butter, butter, vanilla and confectioners sugar in a bowl until stiff. Then use your hands to roll into small balls. flatten slightly, place on wax paper and chill about 30 min.

Using small pretzel sicks broken in half to make the legs. Arrange them on wax paper and then add a dollop of chocolate to hold them together.  

Once all of the legs are ready and the chocolate has hardened, dip the peanut butter balls in the chocolate one at a time and transfer to the pretzel legs using two forks. (see below)

This part is a little tricky and messy.  Lift the peanut butter ball out of the chocolate with one fork to allow the excess chocolate to drip off, then use the other fork to slide it off onto the pretzel legs. Use the fork to press down slightly to make sure it sticks to the chocolate on the legs. 

Allow the chocolate to harden before decorating. 

To decorate i used a little white chocolate in a pastry bag, icing would work too. Put a dot where you want your candy eyes to be and then press the candy into it. Then you can add other decorations like stripes, dots, fangs additional eyeballs. etc.  

These are a lot of fun to make, and the kids can help roll out the peanut butter balls, adding the eyes and decorating them.  

Spooky Spider Treats

Ingredients

3/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1/4 cup butter softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups confectioners sugar

bag of small pretzel sticks

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips 

1 tablespoons shortening

a little white chocolate or icing 

small candies for eyes.

wax paper

In a medium size bowl, mix peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and confectioners' sugar (mixture will be  really stiff). Shape into balls, flatten slightly and place on a pan covered with wax paper. Place into the refrigerator to chill for 30 min.

 When they are chilled. Use a double boiler or microwave safe bowl to melt the chocolate and shortening together. If microwaving heat in 30 sec. intervals and mix until smooth. 

To make a spider. Take 4 small pretzel sticks, break in half and arrange the 8 pieces on wax paper to look like spider legs. Add a little melted chocolate to the center of the legs to stick the legs together. 

Once hardened, dip the peanut butter ball into the chocolate to cover completely. Lift out with a fork and gently slide it onto the pretzel legs. Press slightly. Do this until all the spiders are complete. Allow chocolate to harden before decorating.  

Use a little icing or melted white chocolate to stick the candy eyes on, and decorate spiders as desired.