Halloween Peanut Butter Spiders

These Halloween Peanut Butter Spiders are a lot of fun to make, super spooky-cute, and taste absolutely amazing!  Make these sweet and adorable peanut butter protein critters for your little trick or treaters to enjoy. These no-bake, vegan treats are probably one of the easiest Halloween goodies that you can ever make!

While some are busy unleashing their creativity with their Halloween costumes, some, like me, prefer crafting ingenious, and yummy Halloween treats in the kitchen! These Halloween Peanut Butter Spiders are a great addition to your hauntingly sweet dessert table together. Make a batch together with Halloween Spider bagels for some eerier yet edible creepy crawlies.

Ingredients for Peanut Butter Spiders

Making a vegan Halloween treat is not tricky at all! You can use common plant-based ingredients to create one.

• Peanut butter – Any brand of peanut butter works for this recipe. Natural peanut butter is not the best option as it doesn’t stay as firm.
• Coconut milk – A full-fat milk is used to add a thicker and creamier texture and richer taste.
• Granulated sugar – For a combination of sweetness and crunch.
• Agave – Makes the treats sweeter and also binds the ingredients together, making them easier to form.
• Flour or gluten-free flour – This will be used for coating the peanut butter balls.
• Pretzel sticks – Divided into halves and will be used as the spider legs.
• Chocolate chips – to complete the look, add chocolate chips for the eyes.

Substitutions and Add-ons

• Brown rice syrup is an excellent plant-based substitute for granulated sugar or agave.  It is vegan and gluten-free.  Brown rice syrup is thick and sticky compared to maple syrup which is perfect for our peanut butter balls.
• Stir in some rolled oats or unsweetened shredded coconut for that extra texture.
• Add some dried fruits.  You can add dates, raisins, and blueberries, to name a few. You can use a food processor to break them down. It aids in the binding of the other ingredients.
• Almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter, or tahini can all be used in place of peanut butter.
• You can also use Roasted Pumpkin Seeds or raisins instead of chocolate chips for a different look.

How to make Peanut Butter Spiders

Making them is so much fun. You can get your kids involved too! And they are easy enough to make that making a double or triple batch will be no problem at all! After all, you never know how many hungry ghouls and superheroes will find their way to your house on Halloween day!

1. To make these peanut butter protein ball spiders, simply combine the peanut butter, coconut milk, sugar, and agave in a mixing bowl. Make sure that all ingredients are properly incorporated.
2. Make little balls from the peanut butter mixture and roll them in flour. Then freeze them for an hour.
3. Assembling the eyes and legs is the most enjoyable part. Remove the peanut butter balls from the freezer and decorate with three pretzel spider legs on each side and chocolate chips for the eyes.
4. You can keep the spiders in the freezer to make them harder and firmer.

Tips when Making Halloween Peanut Butter Spiders

1. Wet your hands. Keep a bowl of water nearby when rolling your peanut butter balls so you can dampen your hands as needed. This allows you to roll the balls much easier and prevent the ingredients from sticking to your hands while you’re working.
2. Get it together. If your mixture is not sticking together to create a ball, it’s possible that the mixture isn’t moist enough.  Add a bit more peanut butter, sugar, or agave until you reach the desired consistency.
3. Get some napkins ready.  Keep them cold until you’re ready to serve. Once they are at room temperature, be prepared for these peanut butter treats to get a little sticky. To prevent too much mess, you can place them on small cupcake cups and have some napkins on hand.
4. Double the yumminess! You can use these Peanut Butter Spiders as a topper. Make some Oil-free Banana Muffins and vegan vanilla buttercream, then place these goodies on top. Or to make it totally no-bake, use my No-Bake Peanut Butter Cups instead.

Storing Notes

• Fridge. Keep any leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
• Freezer. These can be frozen for 3 months if you wish to keep them for a longer period of time. Make a double batch and freeze a part for future hectic weeks because these are extremely freezer friendly. You can omit the pretzels and chocolate chips entirely. Place in the fridge overnight to thaw before serving.

Fun Halloween Peanut Butter Ideas

Using your imagination, come up with unique frightening Halloween snacks and combinations. The possibilities are limitless! These are the perfect base for Halloween treats.  Here are some of my recipes that you might want to adapt:

1. Peanut Butter Bonbons –  Chocolate-coated peanut butter and rice Krispies balls.  This could be an ideal eyeball. Make your own googly eyes out of icing, or use candy eyes.
2. Chocolate Covered Trail Mix Peanut Butter Balls – The mix of oats, nuts, and dried fruit makes this a really healthy snack and treat. To make a miniature pumpkin, cover it with orange sprinkles and use a pretzel as the branch.
3. Peanut Butter Banana Bars – You can’t go wrong with this classic banana and peanut butter recipe. It is the perfect base to make ghost-shaped popsicles! Use white semi-sweet chocolate instead and draw the ghost face using icing or melted chocolate.

Photos by Alfonso Revilla

Halloween Peanut Butter Spiders

Miranda Rivera

These Halloween Peanut Butter Spiders are a lot of fun to make, super spooky-cute, and taste absolutely amazing!  Make these sweet and adorable peanut butter protein critters for your little trick or treaters to enjoy. These no-bake, vegan treats are probably one of the easiest Halloween goodies that you can ever make!

5 from 32 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 mins

Freezing time 1 hr

Total Time 1 hr 10 mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 10 servings

Calories 117 kcal

METHOD No Bake

DIET Vegan

Equipment

Measuring Cups

Measuring spoons

Mixing Bowl

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• ½ cup peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon full-fat coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons agave
• Flour or gluten-free flour for coating
• 40 sticks Pretzel sticks for legs, each broken in half
• 20 pieces Chocolate chips for eyes

Instructions

 

• In a large bowl, stir together the peanut butter, coconut milk, sugar, and agave.
• In a pie pan, pour some flour and begin to small roll balls of peanut butter.
• Freeze for about 1 hour. Remove from the freezer and put three spider legs on each side of the ball and chocolate chip as eyes (see photos for reference).
• Refrigerate some more if you'd like it to harden some more. Enjoy!

Notes

Natural peanut butter is not the best option for this recipe as it doesn’t stay as firm.

Nutrition

Calories: 117kcalCarbohydrates: 11gProtein: 4gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 1mgSodium: 111mgPotassium: 93mgFiber: 1gSugar: 6gVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 7mgIron: 1mg

Keyword agave, chocolate, halloween, peanut butter, plantbased, spiders, sugar, vegan

Tried this recipe?Please tag us at @PlantBasedonaBudget! 🙂