A couple of months ago I went to this event at the San Diego Public Market called Cake Bake 2013.  It was a fundraiser to benefit No Kid Hungry.  There were booths featuring sweets for sampling from some of San Diego’s best bakers.  They had a Bake Sale and a Cake Walk (y’know, you’d think I would’ve learned…I never won a single thing in any cake walk at any of those Halloween carnivals when I was in elementary school and my luck didn’t change now.  Oh well, it was for a good cause). 

I discovered two really wonderful bakers that I hadn’t heard of.  Under the Crust…Hannah makes adorable and delicious “sweet & savory handcrafted mini pies” and sells them out of converted vintage pick up truck.  And The Cravory…really yummy cookies that you can actually have delivered to your home!  I, of course, left will a half dozen cookies…among them Lemon Bar, Ultimate Chocolate Chip, Rosemary Balsamic and a couple of their “Flavors of the Month”.  My very favorite was the PB Butterfinger…a peanut butter cookie with Butterfingers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.  Holy Moly.

So, Halloween rolls around and I buy Reese’s, Snickers and Butterfingers (so what if I happen to buy my favorite candies??) to hand out to our trick-or-treaters. Well, the peanut butter cups were the first to go, but we did have a few leftover Snickers and Butterfingers, so I decided I’d use the Butterfingers to make my own Cravory-inspired cookies.  I spent a fair bit of time online trying to find a recipe for a peanut butter cookie with Butterfingers.  There were plenty of just regular chocolate chip variety recipes, but not many with peanut butter cookie dough (not sure why I didn’t just look in my favorite Dorie Greenspan Baking cookbook and use her peanut butter cookie recipe, but I didn’t think of it until the cookies were in the oven!  Sorry Dorie.)

I found this one at My Baking Addiction (I loved the look of the blog…great photos and graphics).  I questioned the use of just egg whites, not whole eggs, but they turned out great.  Really great, in fact.  I really like that they are not too soft, not too hard, just right.  Might be my new favorite cookie (in fact, Tony said they are his new favorite!)

Would they have been better with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in them too?  Perhaps.  Next Halloween I’ll make sure to set aside some of those too. 

As Bart Simpson would say, “nobody better lay a finger on my (peanut butter) Butterfinger (cookie)!!”

Peanut Butter Butterfinger Cookies

(adapted from http://www.mybakingaddiction.com)

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
2/3 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
2 egg whites
1 1/4 cups crunchy peanut butter (I used smooth because that’s what I had in the pantry)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 (2.1 ounce) Butterfinger candy bars, chopped (I used about 8 Halloween-sized bars; I think 5 regular-sized would be a lot)

 DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the egg whites and beat well. Beat in the peanut butter and the vanilla, mixing until well combined.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in the chopped candy bars.

Using a medium cookie scoop (about 1 ½ tablespoons) shape dough into balls and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove cookies from oven and allow them to cool for about 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before moving them to a cooling rack.