Spider Sugar Cookie Bars (Gluten, dairy, egg, soy, peanut & tree nut free; top 8 free; vegan)

Name: Spider Sugar Cookie Bars (Gluten, dairy, egg, soy, peanut & tree nut free; top 8 free; vegan)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Cookie
Ingredients: 1 recipe for Sugar Cookie Bars & Faux "Butter" Cream; Orange food dye; Black food gel; Plastic spiders; Round baking dish (I used a pie plate)

October 10, 2016

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A fun and festive way to spook-ify a delicious treat. Thick, soft sugar cookie bars are topped with a rich, faux “butter”cream. Decorated so that all your ghouls and goblins will love it. Great for a party or a special Halloween-themed treat, this dessert can feed about anybody as it’s free of gluten, dairy, egg, soy, peanut & tree nuts. This is also top 8 free and vegan!

If I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again–I’m not crafty. Nor will I ever be unless I have a Crafty Godmother who comes and waves her magical wand at me.

But. what I can do is take something I know works and do the simplest thing to it to make it a little extra fun. You can too!

If you’ve been following my blog, you know I ADORE these sugar-cookie bars. I’ve even made them on TV (click here to watch it). I make them green for St. Patrick’s, Blue with red & white sprinkles for July 4th and now I’ve gone and made them spooky. I really can’t profess my love enough about how versatile sugar cookies are! I love how you can dress them up for any holiday or occasion! If you have food allergies and a limited amount of dessert options–tweak those options to fit your celebrations.

Instead of baking them in my typical square pan, I made them in a round, glass dish.

Then, I made the same “faux” buttercream I always do–but dyed it orange. Take some black edible gel and draw a spider web on it, throw on a dollar store plastic spider and VOILA–you’ve got yourself a crowd pleasing Halloween treat!

What was a lot of fun was telling my boys about it and then letting them see it become transformed. Since I haven’t had to draw a spider web since, well…probably elementary school I had me and my boys watch a tutorial on YouTube (thank you YouTube for your never-ending tutorial videos!) It was fun to show them that you can learn and try new things all the time. We practiced twice on paper and then they “ooed” and “awed” while I did it on the cookies. Please, PLEASE don’t ever let them grow up and stop being fascinated with my simple tricks. It’s so fun to have an audience that adores these little inventions.

While my boys had fun watching it come to life, they’ve had more fun eating it! And, I’ve totally milked it (not dairy though!) and bribed them to eat well all weekend, and then gave them small slices as a reward. It’s easy to cut, since you have the spider web lines to help you make nice, even slices.

I really think this might have to be a new Halloween tradition. I’ve never been one to host Halloween parties, or decorate much–but this…this edible spider web that is so sweet, crumbly and DELICIOUS…THIS I can get into.

I hope that this fun, allergy-friendly treat helps you have a spooky, but SAFE Halloween time. I’ve got another fun treat coming up–so be sure to stay connected with me on social media, or simply sign up for my email (on the right hand side of my site) so my posts get sent straight to your inbox!

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Spider Sugar Cookie Bars (Gluten, dairy, egg, soy, peanut & tree nut free; top 8 free; vegan)

Yield: 8 slicesPrep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

1 recipe for Sugar Cookie Bars & Faux “Butter” Cream
Orange food dye
Black food gel
Plastic spiders
Round baking dish (I used a pie plate)

Instructions

Follow the directions in the original recipe, but being sure to put the dough into a round baking dish. The time to cook was the same for me.
When you make the frosting, add orange food coloring until it’s as deep of a color as you desire.
Frost the cookie once it’s cooled.
After frosting, draw on a spider web with the black food gel.
Garnish with a plastic spider.