Recipe: Chocolate spider cookies

Makes: 12
Prep: 15 minutes
Baking: 12-14 minutes
Chilling: Truffle mix preferably overnight

Truffles
• 200g Gem dark chocolate drops
• 130ml single cream
• 10g butter

Cookies
• 110g butter, room temperature
• 70g Gem caster sugar
• 10ml milk
• Dash vanilla essence
• 140g Gem plain flour
• 1 tsp Gem cornflour
• Pinch salt

Garnish
• 50g Gem dark chocolate, melted
• 24 mini edible sugar eyes

Method
• For the truffles, place the Gem chocolate, cream and butter into a bowl and place in the microwave and melt in short 20 second bursts (approx. 80 seconds)
• Remove and stir to blend.
• Place in the fridge for a minimum of 6 hours, preferably overnight.
• For the cookie dough, cream the butter and Gem caster sugar together until soft & pale.
• To this add the milk and vanilla, mix.
• Sieve the Gem flour, cornflour and salt and add this to the butter mixture.
• Mix and chill dough for 30 minutes.
• While the dough is chilling, preheat your oven to 190C/170C fan and line one tray with parchment paper.
• Remove the rested cookie dough and roll into 12 balls.
• Place these on the tray and flatten slightly, lightly dust your thumb with flour and make a small impression in the centre of each cookie.
• Place in the preheated oven and bake for 12-14 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
• Remove and allow to cool.
• To finish the truffles, take the chilled truffle mix from the fridge and divide into 12 balls. Roll between your hands to form a neat circle. This can be a messy job so you can pop on gloves if you want to. If your kitchen is hot and the truffles are too soft to roll, you can always pop them into the freezer to help firm up.
• To decorate, spoon some of the melted chocolate into a small piping bag and pipe 8 small legs on each cookie.
• Place the chocolate truffle on top and finish by adding the sugar eyes.

Top Tip
• Keep your cookies chilled until you plan to serve