Chocolate Chip Butterfinger Cookies

Listen.

When you find a cookie recipe you're smitten with, it becomes naturally difficult to have much to do with any other cookie. Really. I may be nuts for peanut butter (bwahh haaaa, no pun intended), but these are universally scrumptious, even if you are a PB foe.

Actually, in the process of making these cookies, I had a lil' sentimental wave of nostalgia fly through my veins. It's been some time I dare say, that I've eaten a butterfinger bar and something about snacking on it now flashed memories through my head of when my cousin and I would empty out our piggy banks (promise we were about 20 years younger than we are now), count up all the change, and walk down to the nearby 7-11 where we'd spend it all within 5 minutes on every kind of candy and candy bar that existed under the sun. That was obviously, back when candy was less than a half a buck mind you. Then, the afternoon was exhausted in meticulously dividing up each ration and of course, consuming the poor stuff while rotting out all our young pearly whites. Where our mothers were, or how they did not object to this common summer ritual, I do not know.

Anyhow.... with story time behind me, I'd like to beckon you to try these out for the next cookie baking extravaganza in your kitchee. I pray to the allergy gods that peanut butter anything never turns into a hypersensitivity or aversion.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Butterfinger Chunk Cookies

{Bon Appetit, June 2010}

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup natural no-stir crunchy (or chunky) peanut butter

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

1 2.1-ounce Butterfinger candy bar, chopped (scant 1/2 cup)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat peanut butter, butter, 1/3 cup sugar, and brown sugar in large bowl until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla extract, then flour mixture (dough will look crumbly). Stir in bittersweet chocolate chips and chopped Butterfinger candy.

Place remaining 1/4 cup sugar in small bowl. Using 1 1/2 tablespoons dough for each cookie, roll dough between palms to form balls. Roll balls in sugar and place on prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Using bottom of glass or measuring cup, press cookies into 1/3-inch-thick rounds.

Bake cookies until edges are golden brown, 15 to 16 minutes, reversing sheets halfway through cooking time for even baking. Transfer parchment paper with cookies to rack and cool, and develop some self control.