Preheat oven to 350°F and line 3 baking pans with silicon baking mats or parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar.

Beat in the eggs one at a time and then mix in the baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract.

Roll dough into 1 – 1 1/2 inch balls and place on the baking sheets, do not flatten the cookie dough balls.

Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes. When the cookies are done baking, immediately place 1 peanut butter cup upside-down on each cookie.

Cool on the baking pans until firm enough to move and then cool completely on a cooling rack. Store at room temperature or freeze until ready to decorate.

To make the googly eyes, mix together the powdered sugar, cornstarch, corn syrup, water, and almond extract – mixture will be thick like paste/glue.

Transfer the sugar mixture into a sandwich bag and snip one corner to pipe. Pipe the mixture into small circles (to desired size, mine are about the size of a pen cap) on wax paper until all of the sugar is used. Let the eyes sit at room temperature to dry and harden for 24 hours before using.

To assemble the spider cookies, melt the 1/4 cup of chocolate in the microwave at 50% power for 30 seconds. Stir and repeat melting process for 15 seconds until chocolate is melted.

Dip a toothpick into the chocolate and make a small chocolate patch on the Reese’s peanut butter cup and place two eyes on each chocolate patch. (The chocolate will act as a glue to hold the eyes. If the cookies are frozen or cold, the chocolate will harden faster and the eyes will stick better.) Repeat until all the eyes are attached to the cookies.

Once the eyes are attached, dip the toothpick into the chocolate and then give each eye a chocolate center.

To make the legs, dip the toothpick into the chocolate and then draw the chocolate legs. If your chocolate isn’t thin enough and starts to cool and thicken at this point, reheat for a few seconds to loosen it up. Once all the legs are drawn on with the chocolate, cool until the chocolate hardens. Store in an airtight container.