Ingredients

1.

Unsalted Butter
4 tablespoon
2.

Cream Cheese
4 ounce
3.

The Ultimate Sugar Repacement by Swerve
½ cup
4.

Raw Egg
4 large
5.

Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon
6.

Pumpkin, Canned
½ cup
7.

Paleo Baking Flour by Bob's Red Mill
¾ cup
8.

Baking Powder
1-½ teaspoon
9.

Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 tsp
10.

Cinnamon
½ teaspoon
11.

Salt
⅛ teaspoon
12.

Baking Squares Unsweetened 100% Dark Chocolate by Scharffen Berger
4 ounce
13.

Cream Heavy Whipping
4 fl oz
14.

Sweet Drops Liquid Stevia by Sweet Leaf
4 drops

Instructions

1.
Use a stand mixer to blend together the butter and cream cheese with a paddle attachment. It may be most helpful if you bring the cream cheese to room temperature before blending. Mix the two ingredients until you have a lump-free blend. Mix for a few additional minutes to ensure a light, soft cookie. Then, mix in the swerve. Again, mix until you have a lump-free mixture.
2.
On a low speed, mix the eggs, vanilla, and canned pumpkin into the mixture. Continue mixing until you have a smooth, consistent liquid batter. In a separate mixing bowl, sift together the paleo flour, baking powder, pumpkin spice, cinnamon, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients inside the stand mixer. Scrape down the mixing bowl and ensure your batter is, again, lump-free. Set the batter in your refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
3.
During the final 10 minutes of chilling, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a couple of sheet trays with parchment paper. Scoop and arrange 2 tablespoons of batter per cookie onto the trays. The original recipe here should make about 20 cookies. Bake the tray for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, pull the cookies out of the oven and use the back of your tablespoon measurer to press an indent into the center of each cookie.
4.
Return the cookies to the oven and bake for an additional 12 minutes. The cookies will need to cool completely before moving onto the next steps, so transfer them to a cooling rack. You may either bake these cookies early in the day and decorate in the evening, or you can prepare the cookies a day ahead before decorating. If you ve chosen the latter method, wrap the cookies on a plate after cooling and store them in your refrigerator. Again, make sure the cookies are completely cool before wrapping, or else the moisture will make the cookies too soft.
5.
When you re ready to decorate, make the chocolate ganache. Finely chop 100% dark chocolate and place in a heat-safe bowl. In a small pot over your stove, combine the heavy cream and liquid stevia. Do NOT add the stevia directly to the chocolate or you risk warping the chocolate and ruining your ganache. Heat the cream to a simmer and immediately pour over the chocolate. Do not stir the chocolate and cream. Instead, wrap the bowl in foil or cover with a pan lid for 5 minutes.
6.
After 5 minutes, use a whisk to stir your ganache together. It will be on the thicker side, which will be best for decorating. Scoop the warm ganache into 2 piping bags: one with a large opening for filling the center of the cookies and one with a small opening to pipe spider legs. Arrange your cookies on a clean surface or parchment paper to begin decorating.
7.
Fill each cookie center with approximately TB of chocolate ganache to make the spider s body. Then, use the smaller piping bag to giver each spider 8 legs. If you are left with extra ganache, get creative! Use the smaller piping bag to create spider webs or smaller spider designs on the cookies. You can serve the cookies immediately, or you can return the cookies to your refrigerator to cool until serving time. The ganache won t harden but will become more firm and chilled for eating.