Butterfinger Cookies
Happy Halloween! As if we weren’t all sugared up enough, I thought we could use one more Halloween-Candy inspired recipe to close out a candy-filled month. Diet starts tomorrow right? This peanut butter cookie is the perfect use for leftover Butterfinger candies. You can either use the Butterfinger baking bits from the baking aisle, or just crush up a bunch of mini Butterfinger candies. Either way, these cookies pack a big peanut butter punch and put your Halloween candy to good use!
Growing up in Connecticut, my neighborhood was top notch for trick-or-treating. We lived on a long road that had a circle road right next to it, and a new development behind it, so you could easily hit up at least 50 houses while trick-or-treating. Each year we’d get a little smarter, knowing which houses guaranteed full-size candy bars, and which long driveways might not be worth it to walk up for a bag of mini pretzels. Trick-or-treating was my first real-life application of ROI. With limited time, and each house having a limited supply of candy, my brother, sister and I were strategic in our trick-or-treating navigation through the neighborhood to optimize the largest yield of candy. Gotta leverage those synergies.
And to further build on my key consulting skills from an early age, post-trick-or-treating was an intense negotiation candy swap between my brother, sister and me. Luckily for me (unfortunately for him) my brother has a severe nut allergy, so I had the upper hand in the trades when it came to anything involving nuts. I always ended up with all the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers and Butterfingers. My brother got Junior Mints, M&Ms, and Nestle Crunches. And our little sister usually was convinced that Charleston Chew and Malt Balls were desirable candies to trade.
Butterfingers never seem to strike me as a candy people eat year round. It always seems to be a popular fun-size candy that shows up around Halloween. I mean, think about it. When’s the last time you saw someone in the middle of summer biting into a full-size Butterfinger bar? It’s probably because they are so dang sugary people need a full year to recover. I found a bag of Butterfinger baking pieces in the aisle at Target a few weeks ago, and decided to test them out in one of my peanut butter cookie recipes for a Halloween-inspired treat. They are definitely very sweet, but are jam packed with Butterfinger flavor. These cookies are so simple and fast to make, and you could definitely modify the recipe with whatever peanut butter candy you have on hand. These would be delicious with Reese’s Pieces or Snickers!
So if you find yourself with a surplus of Butterfinger candy after your trick-or-treating haul this Halloween, put that candy to good use with a batch of these Butterfinger Cookies. Enjoy!
Butterfinger Cookies
Yield: 36 Cookies
Prep Time: 10 Minutes + 20 Minutes Chill
Cook Time: 10 Minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups Butterfinger pieces
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Use an electric mixer to beat together the butter, peanut butter and sugars until creamy. Mix in the eggs and vanilla extract until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding the dry ingredients.
- Add in the flour, baking powder + baking soda, and mix on a low speed until fully incorporated.
- Fold in the Butterfinger pieces until evenly distributed. Chill the dough for at least 20 minutes to set.
- Use a cookie scoop to place even-size balls of cookie dough on a sil-pat or parchment lined baking sheet at least an inch apart. Sprinkle with some remaining Butterfinger pieces. Bake at 375 degrees for about 10-12 minutes, being careful not to overcook.
- Let the cookies sit for a few minutes on the tray before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!
