Kisses Free Printable: Ingredient Spotlight-Peanut Butter Brittle Cookies

Ingredient Spotlight-Peanut Butter Brittle Cookies

Recently I was tearing out recipes and articles from some old magazines so that I could send the magazines for recycling. Am I the only one who still tears recipes from magazines, I wonder.

One of the recipes that caught my eye was from a 2004 issue of Family Circle magazine. (See, I said they were OLD magazines.) The recipe was for a peanut butter cookie that had crushed peanut brittle added. Thinking that was a good idea and being that I just happened to have some peanut brittle on hand that I had picked up at Dollar Tree, I made the cookies. They were not quite as dense as most peanut butter cookies and had a subtle peanut brittle flavor with a little extra crunch, a very nice change.

I must warn that this recipes make a lot of cookies, somewhere around 7 dozen of the size that I made . The original recipe called for using 1/4 c. dough per cookie which would have made Huge cookies. I used a level tablespoon of cookie dough per cookie and still had 3-inch cookies which I find plenty big enough.

I crushed the peanut brittle in my mini food processor in three batches, then I put it in a zip top bag and used my metal meat mallet to crush any remaining bigger pieces the food processor did not get.

Peanut Butter Brittle Cookies
adapted from Family Circle magazine

4 –5 oz. peanut brittle
3 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 c. creamy peanut butter
1 c. light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 c. sugar, divided
2 t. vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature

Break peanut brittle into fairly small pieces and pulse in food processor until finely crushed. If you do not have a food processor, place pieces in a plastic zip top bag and pound with a metal meat mallet or hammer. (There should be about 3/4 cup crushed brittle.) Combine crushed brittle, flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and mix well. Set aside. Place butter and peanut butter in a large mixer bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Add brown sugar and 1/2 c. sugar. Beat until light in color, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth, scraping down side of bowl. With mixer on low speed, add half of flour mixture and beat well. Add remaining flour mixture and beat until well mixed. Dough will be stiff. Place remaining 1/2 c. sugar in a shallow bowl. Using a scoop that holds 1 tablespoon or a measuring tablespoon scoop out level tablespoons of dough and form into balls. Roll balls in the sugar. Place on ungreased baking sheet and flatten with the bottom of a glass. (I do not have a glass so I use a 1-cup metal measuring cup and wipe it with a paper towel after flattening each cookie). Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges have just begun to brown and cookies are set. Remove from oven and let stand on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Remove cookies to rack to cool. Store cookies in an air tight container at room temperature up to 2 weeks. (Believe me, these would never last that long in this house.) Makes about 84 cookies.