Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies

December 16, 2019Teresa Ambra

Okay, let’s get this out of the way right now. Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies are awesome! Really. These lovely cookies have everything you want in a cookie. They’re rich, decadent and filled with Butterfinger candy bars. That means they’re also loaded with chocolate and peanut butter. Yum!

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I was not actually planning on posting this recipe before the New Year. But John got a text from a large church in Houston who received some of these cookies. They liked them so much they wanted to put them on a regular cafe menu for their church. So I decided to go ahead and post this recipe now because they wanted the recipe.

After Halloween, I asked my husband to go buy a bunch of candy on sale so I could bake with it. He got 6 or 7 different kinds of candy. So I had tons of candy laying around my house and needed to start using it up. I decided to use up some of the Butterfinger Candy Bars as cookies.

I started with a favorite recipe and realized immediately that wasn’t going to work and improvisations were going to be required. Second batch: I added a little flour. That still didn’t work. My husband looked at me and said most of these candies have a lot of oil (from the chocolate, peanut butter and sometimes caramel in their contents). Ding, ding, ding, ding. The lightbulb went off and I realized I needed to cut out some of the butter. That was the big difference.

The third batch I decreased the butter by 1/2 cup and increased the flour by 1/3 cup. That seemed to work with almost all of the candies except those that have a lot of flour content in them already. Those batches (using different candy bars) needed the decrease in butter but not a corresponding increase in flour. (I’m sorry, I know this is getting into the weeds).

I made four batches of this recipe at a time. Several other times I made eight batches instead of four. That’s a lot of cookie dough! I didn’t want to take time to roll ALL of that cookie dough into balls so I decided to scoop the dough instead. I knew it would be a lot easier and a lot quicker. Do understand that scooping the dough makes monster size cookies. They will take much longer to bake. But oh, so worth it! 🙂

I made these cookies for our annual Christmas Cookie Extravaganza this year. I was in the middle of baking hundreds and even a thousand cookies a day for a two week period. My pictures reflect the second version of this cookie rather than the third version which was spectacular. The cookies will have more body and be thicker than those in my pictures following this recipe. That’s okay. That’s the way they’re supposed to turn out.

Let me give you a few tips about making these cookies:

Soften the butter. I had mine laying out on the counter from the night before.
Stir the flour and Butterfinger Candy Bars into the dough until there are no more crumbs. Not one more! If the mixture is too dry it will be hard to scoop the dough. If you make large batches like me, sometimes it took ten minutes to get the dough stirred sufficiently.
I know it seems like a LOT of flour. It is. But because of the content of sugar and oil from the Candy Bars, unless you have these proportions, the cookies will run into each other and not hold their shape.
These whopper sized cookies take a long time to bake. I rotated the racks every six minutes while baking. Because I baked no less than three cookie sheets at a time, most of the time the cookies took between 19-24 minutes to bake sufficiently.
Only when I had a single rack of cookies (three left) did the cookies bake in 13 minutes.
To check for doneness: The cookies really start puffing up around the 12-14 minute mark. But they will be moist on top for about 5 more minutes. You have to get the cookies to the point where they have risen and baked and no moisture is left on top. The cookies will look and feel firm when done. They won’t look like they’re still in the puffing and raising stage.
I know this is a judgment thing from baking cookies for so many decades, but it’s almost better to err on the side of a little too much rather than too little baking time (for these whopper-sized cookies).
If you take the cookies out of the oven and they fall or sink in the middle (after about a minute), the cookies are underdone and you will have a doughy cookie in the middle.
Space the dough out on the greased cookie sheets. These cookies will spread. Make sure you space them out a little more than you would normally for cookies.
Make sure you generously grease or spray the cookie sheets. The sugar from the candy bars caramelizes while baking and that can be hard to get the cookies out of the pan unless sufficiently greased.
The biggest thing I will reiterate: rotate the cookies every six minutes while baking. Every six minutes. This will prevent some getting overdone because of hot spots in the oven.
I used convection bake most of the time while baking these for more even baking. The cookies didn’t cook any faster but the heat flowed through the oven more evenly.
Because the pans are rotated (and you have to keep your oven open), the temperature in the oven drops. That’s why the cookies take a little longer to bake than normal.

Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies are dynamic. Seriously. These cookies will knock your socks off. If you need a cookie for holiday parties or Christmas Cookie Exchanges, this is it! They’re also marvelous for tailgating parties, potlucks and any time you need a dose of chocolate. 🙂

Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies are spectacular!

This is a great recipe to use up leftover Halloween candy!

Every bite will have you drooling!

We loved the taste of Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies.

Here’s what I did.

I used these ingredients. In subsequent batches I used only two sticks of butter and more flour.

Place two sticks (1 cup) softened butter in a mixing bowl. Add eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla, sea salt and baking soda.

Cream ingredients with an electric mixer until smooth. If your butter isn’t soft enough it will take longer to get the hardened pieces of butter mixed in. However, you don’t want to use melted butter. That changes the consistency of the cookie.

Add UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour (bleached flour toughens baked goods). Add chopped Butterfinger Candy Bars.

Stir ingredients with a heavy spoon until every crumb is worked into the dough! Do not leave any remnants of dry flour. Keep stirring! I prefer to do this by hand because using a mixer can toughen the cookies.

Scoop cookie dough with a one-quarter cup cookie scoop. I patted the cookie dough into the scoop to make the ingredients adhere a little better.

Place cookie dough on well-greased cookie sheets. Space the dough apart so there are several inches between cookies because the cookies will spread while baking.

Bake at 350 on convection bake for about 13-15 minutes for a single cookie sheet. I was baking 3 racks in each oven at a time. My cookies took 19-22 minutes to bake completely. Rotate cookies on racks every six minutes while baking.

Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies really taste heavenly.

These are terrific cookies for any kind of party. They will be gobbled up in no time.

Look at all that Butterfinger Candy Bar goodness! 🙂

Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies are so good you won’t want to stop eating them!

Here’s the recipe.

BUTTERFINGER CANDY BAR COOKIES

(My own concoction)

Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies

Teresa Ambra

Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies are the ultimate sweet tooth delight! These cookies will rock your world. They're filled with Butterfinger Candy Bars and just explode with chocolate and peanut butter flavors. Such delightful cookies as these are fabulous for holiday baking, tailgating parties or any time you need a dose of chocolate and peanut butter. Better make a double batch--everyone will want more!

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Prep Time 20

Cook Time 20

Total Time 40

Course Cookies, Brownies and Bars, Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings

Calories 201 kcal

Equipment

2 18x26" cookie sheet pans
1 large mixing bowl
1 wooden spoon
1 electric mixer
1 sharp knife to chop Butterfingers
measuring cups
measuring spoons
1 spatula
1 1/4 cup cookie scoop

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter softened (2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar firmly packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp. real vanilla extract NOT imitation vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sea salt
4 1/2 to 4 2/3 cups UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour (bleached flour toughens baked goods)
3 cups Butterfinger Candy Bars chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°.
Grease or spray large cookie sheets with cooking spray.
In large bowl, combine butter, sugars, vanilla, eggs, salt and baking soda.
Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy.
Stir in flour and Butterfinger bars with a wooden spoon until combined.
Scoop dough with a ¼ cup cookie scoop and place cookies three to four-inches apart on prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 14-16 minutes at 350 degrees, or until completely done.
Rotate cookies on racks every six minutes through cooking time.
Let cookies cool in pan for 2 to 5 minutes.
Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Notes

NOTE: These are also good baked as brownies. Spread into a 10x15” cookie sheet and bake about 30 minutes at 350°.

NOTE: These cookies spread a LOT while baking. You need to space them farther apart than normally.

NOTE: I do not recommend rolling these cookies as they spread out way too much that way. The best option is to use a very large cookie scoop and place the cookies about three to four inches apart on large cookie sheets.

NOTE: I was baking three racks at a time. I rotated the cookies every six minutes while baking. My cookies took between 20-24 minutes to cook completely.

NOTE: I used the convection bake feature on my oven.

NOTE: These cookies are not done until they have puffed up and the tops have dried so that there is no moisture showing. This usually takes between 19-21 minutes (sometimes longer). If you take the cookies out prematurely they will cave and collapse in the middle about a minute or two after removing from oven. The inside of the cookies will be undercooked.

NOTE: Because of the oil and sugar content in the candies, these cookies need more flour than most or they will spread too much in the pan. Make sure you stir the cookie dough together thoroughly before using. Stir in every crumb!

NOTE: Please see the tips at the top of this post for the best success in making these monster-sized cookies.

NOTE: My pictures were taken after the second try. The third try was better with a little more flour added. The recipe card shows my corrections in ingredients. The pictures, however, do not reflect the actual body of the cookie quite as well. The cookies will be about one and a half to twice as thick as the ones pictured here. Unfortunately, I was baking so many hundreds of cookies that day that I didn't have time to show cookies that reflect my recipe changes.

^© Can’t Stay Out of the Kitchen

Nutrition

Calories: 201kcalCarbohydrates: 32gProtein: 3gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.2gCholesterol: 25mgSodium: 130mgPotassium: 61mgFiber: 1gSugar: 17gVitamin A: 155IUCalcium: 17mgIron: 1mg

Keyword Butterfingers, chocolate, chocolate dessert, cookie, dessert, peanut butter

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies will rock your world!

I could have eaten a dozen of these cookies in one sitting. 🙁

Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies is a splendid way to enjoy Butterfinger Candy Bars!

Take Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies along to a potluck or tailgating party and watch them disappear!

You may also enjoy these delicious recipes!

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Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies

Teresa Ambra

Butterfinger Candy Bar Cookies are the ultimate sweet tooth delight! These cookies will rock your world. They’re filled with Butterfinger Candy Bars and just explode with chocolate and peanut butter flavors. Such delightful cookies as these are fabulous for holiday baking, tailgating parties or any time you need a dose of chocolate and peanut butter. Better make a double batch–everyone will want more!

No ratings yet

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 20

Total Time 40

Course Cookies, Brownies and Bars, Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings

Calories 201 kcal