If Butterfingers are your favorite candy bar, you’ll probably love these Butterfinger cookies. Let’s be frank: making a good “Butterfinger” cookie isn’t as simple as cobbling cookies with Butterfingers. Ideally, the cookie should reflect the flavors of the bar, not just drop in pieces of candy bar. This recipe does that.
The use of brown sugar gives the cookies a hint of caramel or butterscotch that echoes the candy bar’s filling and the dough includes a generous dollop of peanut butter. The result is almost irresistible for anyone who loves peanut butter desserts.
Butterfinger Cookie Recipe Ingredients
- Butter: Butter works with the flour and sugar in a cookie recipe to give them texture and adds its distinctive richness and flavor.
- Sugar: Granulated white sugar sweetens cookies and helps give them their texture.
- Brown sugar: Brown sugar gives cookies hints of caramel and butterscotch flavors, which bring out similar notes in the Butterfinger bars.
- Egg whites: The proteins in egg whites help hold the cookies together and contribute to their structure, but leave them lighter than they’d be with the yolks included.
- Peanut butter: Peanut butter is one of the primary flavors in the Butterfinger bar, so using it in cookies with Butterfingers helps reinforce that signature taste.
- Vanilla: Vanilla brings a mellow, sweet flavor to baked goods and helps the other flavors taste better.
- Flour: The all-purpose flour in this recipe works with the butter and sugar to give them their texture and chew.
- Baking soda: Baking soda makes the cookies lighter and crisper than they would be without it and also helps give them their beautiful golden-brown color.
- Butterfinger candy bars: The crunchy peanut butter caramel layer is the candy bar’s signature characteristic, and no Butterfinger-based cookie would be complete without it.
Directions
Step 1: Mix the cookie dough
Heat your oven to 350°F. Cream the butter and sugars until they’re light and fluffy, about five to seven minutes. Beat in the egg whites, then the peanut butter and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually beat the dry ingredients into the butter-and-egg mixture and stir in the candy bars.
Step 2: Bake the cookies
Shape the dough into 1-1/2 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Bake the cookies until they’re golden brown, approximately 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the cookies to wire racks and cool before serving or storing them.
Butterfinger Cookie Variations
- Make bar cookies: There’s a case to be made either way, but baking a single pan of bar cookies is usually simpler and more convenient than making individual cookies. Instead of using the cookie sheets, transfer the entire mass of dough to a greased or parchment-lined 13×9-inch pan and bake until the cookies are set. Cool the pan on a wire rack, then cut them into square or oblong portions for serving (they’re great on a dessert tray).
- Make chocolate-covered Butterfinger cookie bars: If you’re making this recipe as a bar cookie rather than individual round cookies, dipping the bars in chocolate raises the bar (so to speak). If you’ve never dipped a bar cookie, use the method from this brownie bites recipe.
- Make sandwich cookies: For an even richer, more decadent Butterfinger cookie recipe, consider turning your Butterfinger cookies into sandwich cookies. First, mix a batch of the filling from our homemade peanut butter cups. Then spread it on the flat underside of half of the cookies and top with the remaining cookies. If you really want to double down on the chocolate and peanut butter combination, you can dip the sandwich cookies (or sandwich cookies halves) in chocolate.
How to Store Butterfinger Cookies
You can store this Butterfinger cookie like most other cookies, in an airtight container at room temperature. Old-school cookie jars with their loose-fitting lids aren’t the best choice. But food storage containers or decorative cookie tins work very well.
Can I make these Butterfinger cookies ahead of time?
A relatively small number of cookies get their charm from their just-baked texture and Butterfinger cookies aren’t among that number. You can easily make them up a day (or a few days) in advance with no notable loss of quality. You can also gently warm them to recreate that just-baked feeling.
How long will Butterfinger cookies keep?
If you store them in an airtight container, as soon as they cool from the oven, they’ll keep (like most cookies) for up to a week.
Can I freeze Butterfinger cookies?
Yes, they freeze and thaw well. As long as they’re well-packaged to protect them from the dry air of the freezer (and potential off-flavors), they’ll last at least three months and as long as six months before their flavor and texture decline. Airtight freezer-safe containers protect the cookies well, but inevitably trap air. Heavy-duty freezer bags that have the extra air squeezed out or vacuum-sealed bags are better but don’t protect as well against physical damage. You get the best of both worlds by sealing the cookies in bags first and then airtight freezer-safe containers.
Butterfinger Cookie Recipe Tips
How small do I need to chop the Butterfinger bars?
That’s a judgment call. They should be small enough to fit into the cookie, but big enough to be recognizable and enjoyable to eat. As a rough estimate, they should probably be at least 1/4 inch in size but no larger than 1/2 inch.
Would it be easier to break the Butterfinger bars?
It depends how strong your hands are and how easily you wield a mallet instead of a knife. If you want to try it for yourself, freeze the candy bars first (they’ll shatter easily that way), then put them inside a sturdy freezer bag and thump them gently but firmly with a meat mallet or rolling pin. With either method you’ll get a mix of chunky and smaller, finer powdery pieces of peanut-flavored caramel. The powdery part bakes into the cookie and the larger pieces stay intact. Both contribute to the finished cookie.
What’s the fastest way to scoop and shape the cookies?
Scooping the cookies with a spoon and shaping them by hand can take a while, especially if the Butterfinger cookie recipe becomes a household favorite and you start making double batches. The quickest way to crank out the cookies in bulk is by using a cookie scoop, or “disher,” the kind with a squeeze handle or thumb lever to eject the cookie dough. For balls 1-1/2 inches in size, use a #50 disher. Many brands color-code their dishers and a #50 is typically rust- or terra cotta-colored.
