Halloween Spider Sandwich Cookies

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the sugar, brown sugar, and butter for about 3 minutes until the mixture is fluffy.
4. Add in the vanilla and egg, and mix until combined. Mix in the coffee.
5. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in 2 or 3 additions, and mix together on low speed until combined. The mixture will be a little sticky.

6. Drop the dough onto the lined baking sheets by rounded tablespoonfuls, with about 2″ between each cookie. Flatten the balls slightly with your hand.

7. Bake the cookies for about 15-18 minutes. The cookies will flatten and be just firm enough to easily move with a spatula. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Make the spider legs:

1. Cut each licorice rope into 3 pieces. Then, cut each piece lengthwise into 3 thin strips. (Done this way, each rope should give you 9 legs. I included 18 extra licorice ropes in the ingredients in case any legs need to be redone!)

2. Place the white frosting into a small Ziploc baggie. Press the air out of the bag and seal it. Squish the frosting into one corner, and then snip off a very tiny piece of the corner of the bag: the opening should be very small to pipe out the frosting.

Assemble the spiders:

1. Take two cookies and place them bottom-side up on a work surface. Spread 1/2 teaspoon of raspberry preserves onto each cookie. Arrange 8 of the licorice strips onto one of the cookies, 4 on each side, sticking out over the edge of the cookie. Place the other cookie preserves-side down on top of the other cookie to make the sandwich. Adjust the position of the legs if need be.
2. Pipe two small dots of frosting on the top cookie where the eyes will go, and stick a candy eye onto each frosting dot. Pipe a mouth below the eyes.
3. Repeat these steps with the remaining cookies, preserves, licorice strips, and candy eyes until all the spiders are assembled. With any leftover frosting you can add if you wish some meany eyebrows above the eyes, fangs to the mouths, or decorations to the spider bodies. Place the spider sandwich cookies on a serving platter (decorated with spiderweb doilies if you have them!) and serve.
4. The sandwich cookies can be covered with plastic wrap and kept at room temperature for up to 3 days.
5. Makes about 18 sandwich cookies.