Halloween Treats - How to Make Crunchy Spiders

Amy Bevins: Hi! I am Amy Bevins, I am a writer, an educator and I am also a mom. Today we are making creepy, tasty Halloween treats. We have been working on lots of different items like Witch s Fingers, Bloody Worms and Eyeball Bites. We are going to finish it out today with something sweet and tasty for your kids to enjoy but it s not a candy it s also a little bit healthy which is always a good item during this holiday season. Our ingredients for this recipe are peanut butter, honey, dry milk powder, chow mein noodles and chocolate chips. This one is a quick and easy recipe to prepare and one of the best things about it is you can also get kids involved with you in the kitchen, there are no sharp implements, no hot stoves so even your little ones can get right in and get involved. The first thing that we are going to do is measure our ingredients and one of the things that helps when you are measuring things like honey and peanut butter is cooking spray, what you want to do is put a little spray on the inside of measuring cup and then when you measure out your honey or peanut butter it wont stick. For this recipe you are going to need about a half a cup of honey and once again this is a recipe that doesn t require exact measurements which is always nice when you are cooking with kids and you have that cooking spray inside, it just comes right out of the measuring cup. The next ingredient is one cup of peanut butter and I like to use crunchy peanut butter because when you are making things involving spiders, you want to be a little crunchy and crispy, it always adds to the Halloween fun. So, again we are going to put a little spray and using your spatula we are going to get out about a cup of peanut butter, and one of the good things about this recipe is even though it s got peanut butter which is a little high fat but it s still a good and healthy recipe and with the dry milk powder, it s got a lot of protein for the kids especially if they have been snacking on other things that maybe aren t quite so healthy and need you something to fill them up before they go out trick or treating or to end a nice day.

We are going to add the peanut butter to the bowl, we are going to be mixing together till as smooth as you can get it with crunchy peanut butter, so the honey and peanut butter are nicely mixed. Once you have your honey and your peanut butter all mixed together, the next step is to add the dry milk powder, these come in convenient packets and they are about a cup a little bit over in each packet, you are going to want to add two cups so I find it s usually about a pack and a half. One nice things is that it adds a lot of extra protein into your dish for your kids, so you can add cup and then a second packet to make it about two cups. Again this is not precise measurements, you are going to be able to mix this more to your taste, put that in and then it s time to start mixing it together. It s going to be very stiff when you mix and it s going to take a couple of minutes to get it nicely mixed together. But just keep working it together, this is a good part for the children to help with and you can take turns if you got a big group of kids so that stay involved and interested. As much I am mushing and squishing as it is a stirring, you want to start clumping together and if you are finding when you are mixing that it s still little too dry or if it s too wet you can add a little bit more honey or peanut butter to make it a better consistency. What you are looking for is that to start to gather into bowl, if you finding that it s a little bit too dry, you can add a little bit of extra peanut butter and you can maybe add a little bit of extra honey for some nice texture. It s as much a mushing and squishing as it s stirring and this is a great opportunity to get your kids involved, give them each a turn to really work off some of that Halloween energy, there we go.

Alright, once you can pinch it together and hold it it s about the right consistency. That s how you know you re ready to do the next part which is to assemble them. You are going to make balls about walnut size and this is a great part for kids to help with because they love get their hands and get them all sticky, it s a lot like working with play dough, and they are going to eat it which is the best part and once again there is no rule which makes it perfect for kids, you can make them big or small. Spiders come in all sizes and let the kids get in and get their hands messy, it s a great family activity. One secret that I found to making these work really well is once you have got them all balled up then you are going to want them into your refrigerator for about 15-30 minutes so that they can harden just enough to hold onto the legs. We have some here that have been in the refrigerator that we made earlier. The next step is to put on legs and as everybody knows spiders have eight legs; my kids certainly were quick to remind of this earlier today. They want to make sure that I have all of the legs on the spiders; just going to insert a chow mein noodle into the peanut butter ball, you are going to want to put four on each side, I look to choose kind of look through and choose the longer ones, so that they make nice long legs. We are going to make sure we get four of them and it s fun to choose different shapes and sizes so it looks they are walking you are going to want to add legs to each of the peanut butter balls and again this is an activity that kids love to do, they love to get involved and they love to get messy, especially with something there going to eat when they are done. Once you have a couple of these little spiders ready, we go with some legs on them. The next step is to give them some eyes so they can see where they are going; going want to just put some chocolate chips on for eyes and it s usually best, if you put them pointing down, they will stay in a little bit better, I will put them over here ready for the kids to enjoy when they get home from school or home from trick or treating, they will have nice and healthy and tasty Halloween snack. I hope you enjoy these tasty creepy Halloween treats. Happy Halloween!