Spooky Date Spiders
Spooky Date Spiders- made with just 4 ingredients, these spiders are a fun and healthy Halloween treat that everyone is sure to love!
Anyone who has a toddler knows all about the endless snack requests. If you’re at home, the pantry is bound to be raided. My child, in particular, would be perfectly fine eating nothing but snacks all day, every day.
The idea for this halloween-themed treat was inspired by his most frequent request…dates with peanut butter and chocolate chips. I thought it would be fun to make them into spiders using the mini chocolate chips for the eyes and broken pretzel pieces for the legs.
I was so excited to show them to him after his nap one day but he quickly retreated in tears and asked me to put them away. Ha! Needless to say, he was scared at first, but it didn’t take long for him to come around and start devouring them. Now he loves them and asks for them all of time!
Date Spider Ingredients and Substitutions
- Dates- Fresh Medjool dates work best as they are typically large and soft. You want them to be big enough to have space to fit the legs (er…pretzel pieces) and soft enough to poke them far enough into the date to hold.
- Peanut Butter- My child is obsessed with peanut butter (I can’t imagine who he gets that from, hehe) but you can easily sub almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower butter for a nut-free alternative. I tend to always have natural, drippy nut butter on hand (because it doesn’t have added oils) but any kind will work. If you’re working with drippy nut butter just be mindful that it will be a little more tedious to work with.
- Mini Pretzels- Mini pretzels are ideal as the broken pieces make the perfect size for legs. These whole grain mini pretzels are my favorite because they are decent source of protein and iron but feel free to use any kind you like, including gluten-free, if necessary.
- Mini Chocolate Chips- Technically you could use candy eyes in place of the chocolate chips but have you seen the ingredients for those? Not my favorite. If you want to keep these as wholesome as possible then mini chocolate chips are the better option. I like Enjoy Life Foods to keep the spiders dairy-free. Please note I am linking to Amazon for reference but they are much cheaper to buy in-store if you can find them!
How to Make Spooky Date Spiders
- Cut the date in half. Remove the pit and the hard piece on top.
- Break the pretzels in half then remove inner pieces so just the half-heart shape is left.
- Poke 4 pretzel pieces into each side of the date, until they feel (mostly) secure.
- Carefully spoon nut or seed butter into each half.
- Place two chocolate chips for the eyes.
- Serve immediately or store in a sealed container and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Looking for more healthy treats?
- Pumpkin Chia Pudding Parfaits
- Vegan S’mores Brownies
- Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
- Dark Chocolate Almond Coconut Bites
- Healthy Vegan Monster Cookies
- Fudgy Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
- Grain-free Spider Web Brownies
- The Best Vegan Pumpkin Bread
- Flourless Vegan Tahini Brownies
Spooky Date Spiders
Ingredients
- 8 Medjool Dates, big and soft are best!
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- 64 mini pretzels
- 32 mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Slice each date in half, lengthwise. Remove the pit and the hard piece on top.
- Break the pretzels in half then remove inner pieces so just the half-heart shape is left. Poke 4 pretzel pieces into each side of the dates (so that each date half has 8 legs total), until they feel (mostly) secure.
- Carefully spoon nut or seed butter into each half. Place two chocolate chips for the eyes.
- Serve immediately or store in a sealed container and refrigerate until ready to serve.
These spiders are adorable and so healthy!! I had to giggle when I read that he was scared of them at first! So creative!
I wasn’t expecting him to be scared haha!
How creative!
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