Candy Filled Puffy Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies—12 Weeks of Christmas Treats

Week 5 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats is here!  I was in a peanut butter cookie kind of mood.  I recently found some candy at the dollar store called Clark Bites.  You might remember the old Clark Bar which are not really easy to find anymore.  They are similar to the Butterfinger candy bar.  I’m still on the fence about which one is better.  The Clark Bites are just what it sounds like—little bites of Clark Bar, or if you’ll remember Butterfinger BB’s.  I don’t think those are around anymore, maybe they are, I’m not sure.

Anyway, I bought a couple boxes of the Clark Bites and wanted to put them in a cookie.  I did just that and after remembering seeing a thick, puffy peanut butter cookie a while back, I went on an internet hunt for it and found it.  So the recipe I’ve adapted comes from Jessica at How Sweet It Is.  I tried a half recipe of the cookies exactly as written and they weren’t puffy and thick.  I knew they wouldn’t be and consider it because of the high altitude, so I made a few changes and got Jessica’s perfect puffy cookies.  So if you’d like her recipe, check out the link above.  I’ll be sharing with you the recipe as I made them.

Candy Filled Puffy Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from How Sweet It Is (High Altitude recipe)

2 ½ cups (300 grams) all purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cups (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

6 tablespoons (99 grams) creamy peanut butter, melted and cooled

¾ cup (165 grams) packed light brown sugar

1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, room temperature

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup (4 ounces) mini chocolate chips (or any chips of your choice)

Clark Bites or Mini Butterfinger Candy Bars

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Put the butter and peanut butter in a microwave-safe bowl and heat in 30 second intervals until melted.  Whisk together and let cool completely.  Whisk together in a separate bowl the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Once the butter mixture is cooled, put it in a large bowl and add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and whisk together until well mixed.  Add the dry ingredients and stir together until well combined.  Stir in the chocolate chips. 

Shape the dough into golf ball sized balls, while shaping them, put a mini candy bar in the center and enclose it all with dough.  Put them on the baking sheet about two inches apart.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  (Do not over bake.)  Let cool a couple minutes on the baking sheet, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely, or until you can no longer resist just eating one (or two) still warm. 

These are great for any chocolate and peanut butter lover in your life.  (Especially if they also like Butterfingers and Clark Bar.)  You can certainly make them without the added candy as Jessica did.

Thanks again to Brenda, from Meal Planning Magic for hosting this group blog hop!