These LARGE Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cookies are our new favorite cookie recipe! Thanks to their massive size, you'll feel like you've raided the cookie case of your favorite bakery.
Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cookies
These cookies get their distinctive look and flavor from dreamy, Nestlé Butterfinger candy bars. That's right: The "crispety, crunchety, peanut-buttery" candy bar brings peanut butter cookies to life!
We aren't the first to jazz up peanut butter cookies with Butterfingers. This recipe is inspired by cookies once found at Disney World's Writer's Stop at Hollywood Studios theme park. (For a walk down memory lane, check out this review from Disney Food Blog.)
When our beloved Writer's Stop closed, many of its goodies moved to The Trolley Car Café. When the Peanut Butter cookies were spotted again, they were BIGGER and flatter. This recipe is inspired by version 2!
Crunchy, Chewy and Peanut-Buttery
Disney named their cookies "Toffee Cookies." Why? Butterfinger candy bars have a toffee-like flavor and texture. Here, the crushed, Butterfinger candy bar melts onto the cookies. That means you get the satisfying, buttery, toffee flavor without requiring a toothpick to pry it from your teeth!
Plus- bonus!- the Butterfinger topping is visually delightful. It's fun to pile the candy onto the cookie dough and see how it turns out once baked. Each cookie is a surprise, abstract work of art!
Large, Bakery Style Cookies
In addition to the cookies' gorgeous topping and out-of-this-world taste, their massive size makes them feel bakery-bought. This Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cookie recipe makes eight, 5" cookies. Why make dozens of cookies when you can make eight, bakery-quality cookies?
Making large cookies isn't difficult! While most cookie recipes are baked a couple tablespoons at a time, this recipe starts with 1/3 cup dough per cookie. Flatten out the dough, top with crushed Butterfinger candy, and bake. That's it! We perfected this "scoop and smoosh" technique making this recipe for Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches.
Peanut butter and Butterfinger go together like peanut butter and jelly, so what are you waiting for? Give them a try and let us know how it goes!
Ingredients
- 1.25 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (1/2 stick)
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup JIF creamy peanut butter
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 10 fun size Butterfinger candy bars, separated
Instructions
- Line a large baking sheet*, with parchment paper. (*16" x 11" or larger. If using a smaller baking sheet, bake up cookies 2 at a time.)
- Put 5 fun size Butterfinger candy bars into a small food processor and chop until finely ground.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt). Set aside.
- To a large bowl, add the unsalted butter, peanut butter, dark brown sugar, and granulated sugar. With an electric mixer, beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes.
- Add the egg and vanilla to the creamed butters/sugars mixture and beat until just incorporated. Wipe down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
- Add the dry ingredients and beat until just mixed in. Do not overmix!
- Using a spoon, stir the finely ground Butterfinger (5 fun size Butterfingers) into the cookie dough until combined.
- Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes so it's easier to work with.
- Meanwhile, put 5 fun size Butterfinger bars into a food-safe plastic bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes. (You'll be crushing this Butterfinger to place on top of the cookies. If the Butterfinger is too warm, the chocolate will melt onto the plastic bag.)
- Remove the plastic bag of Butterfinger from the refrigerator and break it into chunks by hitting it with a mallet, rolling pin, or similar (we used the side of a coffee mug). The cookies look best when the Butterfinger is broken into nice-sized chocolate shards and very small (or ground) toffee pieces.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Tightly pack a 1/3 cup measuring cup with cookie dough and level off (do not overflow the measuring cup). Drop the 1/3 cup dough onto the parchment paper. Repeat until you have 4* cookie dough disks, spaced about 3" apart. (If using a baking sheet smaller than 16" x 11", bake up 2 cookies at a time.)
- Find a bowl with a flat, bottom diameter of at least 4". With even pressure, use the bowl to flatten/press each cookie into a 4" wide round. If the cookie gets stuck to the bottom of the bowl, gently peel it off and place it back on the parchment paper.
- Top each cookie with about 1 tablespoon of chopped Butterfinger. The cookies look best when the Butterfinger is distributed like pictured below, with an even distribution of toffee and chocolate.
- Bake cookies for 14 - 15 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to set on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, the transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Repeat steps 11-15 to bake the other cookies. Enjoy!
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