Fun and festive! I melted Ghirardelli dark chocolate melts in the microwave and used a squeeze bottle for the legs for the second batch (it worked better for me than the piping bag I tried the first time). I just set the candy eyes on the bottom and that worked well. Love your recipes and the clear instructions!! 

So happy to hear that everyone loved the cookies, Gail!

I made the spider cookies for my kids and their friends and they jumped with joy when they saw them.  The cookies turned out just like the picture you show…so cute.  Was a bit time consuming, but well worth the effort.  My husband and I loved the texture of the peanut butter cookie.  Soft and chewy.  I’m thinking about making them again today!

You couldn’t just omit the peanut butter from this cookie recipe, but you could use another cookie recipe to make something similar! My thumbprint cookie base and some kind of plain chocolate ball (that’s nut free) would be good alternatives. You could scoop out 1.5 tablespoon balls of the thumbprint cookie dough and bake until the tops are set. I’m not sure how well other options would hold up on a warm cookie so it may be best to press a small indentation into the cookies once they come out of the oven, let them cool, then use some melted chocolate to stick the chocolate ball onto the cookies. There are probably some nut free cup options out there you could use too, I just haven’t tried any that I could recommend.