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Last week’s Key Lime Rice Crispy bars were a hit. So many of you liked them. I am working on holiday rice crispy bar post that will be coming out soon. This week I did a bunch of baking. It just gives me joy and it is so fun to try new things and get creative in the kitchen.
This week’s recipe was inspired by a craving and doing some after Halloween shopping where all the candy is like 70-90% off! I love a good deal. I went to Target to pick up a few things and thought maybe I will just take a walk through any Halloween clearance they might have. There were A LOT of lollipops. Then I saw some peanut butter M&M’s which is in my top 3 M&M flavors. I knew I could throw together a sweet treat with them. So I share with you today – Peanut Butter Crunch Cookies.
Understandably, peanut butter isn’t for everyone and that’s ok. For those who are peanut butter lover’s, these cookies are the ultimate guilty pleasure. Perfectly soft with a crunch and loaded with peanut butter flavor.
This recipe is a classic peanut butter cookie recipe, loaded with some extra goodies to elevate that peanut butter flavor. You could make just the classic peanut butter cookie by not adding in the candies or peanuts. You could, of course, change up what is added to it too. I am all about making any recipe work for you! Some great alternative additions are pretzel pieces, chocolate chips, marshmallows, cut up other candies, or brownie pieces. The options are endless.
These cookies are easy to make and don’t take long at all. Like most cookies recipes, you mix the wet ingredients first, then in a separate bowl, you mix the dry ingredients. Then you combine the two. I personally added chopped peanuts (salted) and chopped up peanut butter m&m’s. Making the dough and chopping the peanuts and candies took me about 10 minutes. I rolled them into about 1 inch balls and on to a cookie sheet they went. I did want to flatten them a bit so they would bake better so I did the classic fork trick. I baked them for about 9 minutes and they came out perfect. A little crunchy on the edges and soft on the inside.
This has become one of my favorite cookie recipes. It is going in my regular cookie line up. I hope you make a version of this cookie and share it with me on social media!
Some of my Favorite Products used:
Peanut Butter Crunch Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Butter, salted
- 1 cup Brown Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 2 ½ tsp Vanilla extract
- ¾ cup Peanut Butter (I used creamy, see link below)
- 1 ¾ cup AP flour
- ¾ tsp Baking soda
- ½ cup Chopped peanuts, salted or unsalted
- ½-¾ cup Chopped peanut butter M&M's
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350℉. Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
- I start by chopping my peanuts and candies up and putting them in a bowl to be set aside for later.
- In a mixing bowl, cream together your butter and brown sugar. Once combined, add in your egg and vanilla extract. Mix just enough to incorporate.
- Add in your peanut butter and stir to combine. You don't want to over mix, so I usually add in the peanut butter and mix by hand using a spatula.
- In a separate mixing bowl add the flour and baking soda. Whisk to evenly blend.
- Slowly add your dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until the dough starts to stick together well. I would say roughy about a minute or two of mixing should do the trick.
- Add in your chopped peanuts and candies. Mix by hand to incorporate evenly throughout the dough.
- Roll 1 to 1½ inch balls of dough.*
- Place about 8-10 cookies per sheet (depending on the size of your cookie sheet)
- Take a fork and flatten the cookies gently.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool.