Butterfinger Cookies

I first made these last month while I was on a business trip to Tennessee.  That building has a full kitchen in it, including an oven, so I decided to treat my fellow workers there to a couple of things, including these Butterfinger cookies.

(Did you know that spellcheck recognizes "Butterfingers" but not "Butterfinger"?  Well, if you didn't know that before, now you do.)

Also have you ever noticed how many times food bloggers take pictures of stacked cookies?  I don't get what is up with that, but I made a point of trying to take a few pics of these cookies all stacked up.

This stack is before the final garnish.  Here it is from a slightly different angle.

Do these stacks make the cookies look better than laid out, like this?

Or fresh from the oven like this?

I get that the cookie stacks look better than the cookie dough balls before baking...

...I'm just not sure why food bloggers stack cookies.  There must be something that they know that I don't know yet.  Maybe someday I will know.  Or maybe not, and I will be lost in a cookie stacking dark confusion all of my born days.

How morbid is that thought?  So I guess you can say that these cookies are perfect for Halloween!  Am I making any sense here?  I didn't think so either, so let me just share the recipe with you and suggest that you try them.

The first time I made them - while I was on that business trip to Tennessee that I mentioned 43 minutes ago at the beginning of this rambling DD - I used a Krusteaz brand peanut butter cookie mix and mini Butterfingers.  It was a good mix that I found at the Publix there in Smyrna, but I added a bit more oil than the package called for since I didn't want them too crumbly.  I truly recommend this mix.  It was a winner.

Then I tried making them from scratch when I got back home, but I didn't care for them as well, since that recipe was more of the standard peanut butter cookie which can tend to be on the crumbly side.

So I wasn't done yet.  I had to try these one more time, and based my recipe on the Peanut Blossom cookies - the holiday standby of the peanut butter cookie with the Hershey Kiss in the middle.  Or if you are me, a peanut butter cookie with the Dove chocolate in the middle.  Cause Dove doesn't taste like plastic chocolate.  Sorry, Hershey.

If you find these where you are, use 'em!

If not, then you'll want to break up enough Butterfinger candy bars to give you about 1-1/2 to 2 cups of Butterfinger bits,crumbles and dust (allowing for nibbles here and there!)  Once you've got that, you are ready to go!

Butterfinger Cookies
1/2 cup softened butter
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter*
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar (next time I think I want to use only brown sugar)
2 T. softened cream cheese
1 egg
Splash of vanilla
1-1/2 cups flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
Butterfinger bits
Sugar for rolling
Chocolate for garnish

*I didn't have quite enough peanut butter for 3/4 cup, so I supplemented with a couple tablespoons of Nutella.  Totally worked!

Cream the butter, peanut butter, sugars and cream cheese until smooth, creamy, light and fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla.  Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the peanut butter mixture, beating just until combined.  Stir in all but about 1/3 cup of the Butterfinger bits until well combined.

Shape the dough into balls and roll in granulated sugar.  Place on parchment lined cookie sheets and bake at 375 for 9 - 11 minutes.  Cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes and then slide the parchment off the sheet for final cooling.

When cooled, melt chocolate bark or chocolate chips to drizzle over the cookies and then garnish with the reserved Butterfinger bits before chocolate sets.

And then be sure you stack your cookies!

Cause that's the money shot!  Or something...

I hope you try these.  They are a pretty fun Fall treat!