Saturday, November 05, 2011

Chunky Snickers Cookies

 Michael and I went grocery shopping and just "happened to notice" that all the Halloween candy was 50% off. Okay, maybe we went grocery shopping with the exact plan to purchase said candy on sale. What can I say, we're suckers. And we never buy candy or keep it in the house any other time of the year. So this was a special occasion!

I've been reading so many blog posts about what to do with all your leftover Halloween candy, and knew I wanted to do the same thing. This recipe only used up one bag, and there are many more to go through, so expect more candy-filled recipes in the future!

Now what candy would be perfect in a basic cookie dough recipe? Snickers, of course! I just made my usual cookie dough for chocolate chip cookies, and replaced the chocolate chips with Snickers chunks.  Aren't they beautiful? I had to seriously resist grabbing a chunk after I chopped them all up. But I couldn't let anything go to waste. Every last chunk needed to go in the cookies!

 Oh my. Now I REALLY had to restrain myself here. I may have taken a couple bites at this point in time. Cookie dough plus Snickers...amazing.

 And because I couldn't help myself. And as if Snickers in the actual dough wasn't enough, I topped each cookie with another chunk. You can tell, this is going to be great. 

And they did not disappoint. The Snickers, with the melted caramel and nougat, made the cookies moist throughout and quite a bit chewy. It was fun to bite into a bit of caramel and have it "string" out of the cookie. The smell from the kitchen was fantastic, and filled with a very peanutty aroma. Which gave me the idea: I should have put peanut butter in the dough. I bet the combo would be even better than my original plan. Oh well, something for next time, or for someone else to try!


Chunky Snickers Cookies

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 package fun-size Snickers (about 16 bars)

Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 375° F. Chop Snickers bars into 8 small chunks per bar (or you can go larger/smaller, if that's what you prefer) and set aside.
  2. 

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, shortening, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in Snickers chunks. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. 


  3. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Notes
- If you don't have fun-size Snickers, you can use regular size bars. I figure you'd need at least 4-5 of those. 
- As I mentioned above, adding some peanut butter could be a great flavor combo for this recipe. Maybe consider adding Snickers to your favorite peanut butter cookie recipe.
- If you don't have whole wheat flour, you can use unbleached all-purpose for the full portion of the recipe.

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