Day 12: Butterfinger Chocolate Chip Cookie

I hope you guys aren't sick of cookies by now but here we are, the twelfth cookie! The recipe is a day late because I didn't have any Butterfingers yesterday but now the missing ingredient has been purchased and the final cookie has been baked. These Butterfinger chocolate chip cookie were originally created as a way to use up leftover Halloween candy but serendipitously, it turns out that the Butterfingers work very well in cookies. The candy keeps it's crumbly crunch and even caramelizes slightly in the oven.

The recipe is an adaptation of Cook's Illustrated chocolate chip cookie recipe, which by the way makes an awesome chocolate chip cookie. I added a bit of peanut butter to boost the Butterfinger flavor. I like to use the fun size candy bars and chop them up. Sometimes parts of the candy completely crumbles into little shards but that's fine, mix it all into the dough, Butterfinger dust and all. The smaller pieces melts into the cookie while the larger chunks keep their shape. I'm guessing you can also use the Butterfinger BBs (though the BBs might be a little too big) and skip the chopping, but I love the rustic look of the chopped up chunks.

If you can't find the Butterfinger bars, you can try substituting chopped up Heath Bars or just toffee/peanut brittle pieces in general. I like using Butterfingers because of its crumbly and loose texture (easy on your teeth). Toffee may be too hard in a chewy cookie, especially after baking.

Butterfinger Chocolate Chip Cookie
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Chocolate Chip Cookie

2 C flour
1 1/2 stick (12 Tbsp) butter, melted and cooled
1/4 C creamy peanut butter
1 C packed brown sugar
1 T vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C bittersweet or semi sweet chocolate chips
Roughly 2/3 to 3/4 C chopped Butterfingers (5 or 6 fun size bars)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Chop the butterfingers into roughly 1/2 inch pieces.

In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. In a separate bowl, whisk the melted and cooled butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients mix until almost combined, stir in the chips and chopped butterfingers.

Form 1/4 C balls of dough. The recipe will make about 16 cookies. Space the balls of dough about 3 inches about and gently flatten them a bit to aid their spread.

Bake at 325 degrees F for about 15 to 18 minutes or until the edges have set but the center still looks underdone. Rotate the sheet halfway through baking. Start checking the cookies at 13 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet.