My soft and chewy Butterfinger cookies are jam-packed with crunchy Butterfinger candy pieces. They can be prepped in just 15 minutes and there’s absolutely NO chilling required!
Soft and Chewy Butterfinger Cookies
You’ve probably had M&M cookies, but have you ever had Butterfinger cookies? Just like the irresistible candy, these soft and chewy cookies have a strong peanut butter flavor and crunchy, chocolatey bits of Butterfinger candies throughout. They are such a fun treat (and are yet another way for me to pair beloved chocolate and peanut butter together 💜).
These cookies aren’t exactly new to the blog; this is is actually an updated recipe from many years ago. My original recipe used a pudding mix, but today’s version is just as soft and chewy without the need for a mix (and all those unnecessary added ingredients).
Why you’ll love this recipe:
- No chilling required!
- Customizable: add your favorite mix-ins. I suggest a few below!
- Fun and unique; a bit different from your standard peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.
- Easy and quick–less than 30 minutes from start to finish!
What You Need
Pay particular attention to these key ingredients, as they will ensure your success with this recipe:
- Butter. I use unsalted butter, but if you only have salted butter on hand, you can just reduce the salt in the recipe to ¼ teaspoon. Whichever type you use, make sure it is softened, but not melty.
- Peanut butter. Use regular creamy or crunchy peanut butter. Just like in my peanut butter blossoms, you don’t want use the “natural” kind of peanut butter that separates here; save that for sandwiches!
- Sugar. I use a blend of granulated and dark brown sugar in this recipe to create a richly flavored cookie base, which complements the buttery, crunchy candy pieces SO well!
- Eggs. Use room temperature eggs for the best results. If you forget to set yours out ahead of time, use my trick for quickly bringing eggs to room temperature.
- Butterfinger candies. You will need a total of 1 ¼ cups of chopped Butterfinger candies to make this recipe. These can either be from 12 of the “fun size” Butterfingers or 5 of the full size bars.
SAM’S TIP: I recommend placing your candy bars in the freezer for 10 minutes before trying to smash them up. This will prevent them from getting super melty in the bag. Don’t freeze much longer than 10 minutes though, or they won’t be easy to crush.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Butterfinger Cookies
- Cream together the butter, peanut butter, and sugars until smooth and well combined.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Stir in the vanilla.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
- Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the wet. Make sure everything is completely combined.
- Crush the Butterfinger candies into small pieces. I like to freeze mine for 10 minutes, then unwrap, place in a ziploc bag, and smack with a rolling pin.
- Fold the Butterfinger pieces into the dough until incorporated.
- Drop the dough by 1 ½ tablespoon scoops onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10-11 minutes at 350F.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.
SAM’S TIP: Don’t over-bake! This is the most important thing to remember as over-baking will make the Butterfinger cookies dry and crumbly. Take the cookies out of the oven when the edges are a light golden brown. The centers might still look a tiny bit underdone, and that is okay! This technique will keep your cookies soft and chewy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sure! If you can find them, feel free to substitute with pre-crushed Butterfinger bits. You will use the same amount as listed here, so 1 ¼ cups or 250 grams.
Absolutely! This dough is very forgiving, so you can certainly add other mix-ins. I like adding crushed pretzel pieces, chocolate chips, chopped nuts, peanut butter chips, etc. Feel free to get creative with it (and let me know what you try in the comments below!).
If you’d like to freeze this cookie dough, follow the instructions for drop cookies in my how to freeze cookie dough post.
These Butterfinger cookies are fun to make with kids! Luke likes to help me crush up the candies 😁. And if you really want to be extra with them, sandwich them around a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a swirl of frosting!
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Butterfinger Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup (245 g) creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup (200 g) dark brown sugar firmly packed
- ⅔ cup (133 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature preferred
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ⅔ cups (333 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups (250 g) chopped/broken Butterfinger pieces
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (245 g) creamy peanut butter, 1 cup (200 g) dark brown sugar, ⅔ cup (133 g) granulated sugar
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter, dark brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth and well combined.2 large eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Then, mix in the vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.2 ⅔ cups (333 g) all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ¾ teaspoon salt
- Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing until completely combined.
- Fold in the Butterfinger pieces.1 ¼ cups (250 g) chopped/broken Butterfinger pieces
- Scoop dough by level 1 ½ Tablespoon and drop onto a parchment-lined or non-stick baking sheet, spacing cookies at least 2” apart.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden and the centers are just set.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for several minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Butterfingers
About 12 fun-sized bars or 5 classic-sized. To break mine, I place them in the freezer for 10 minutes, unwrap, place in a plastic bag, and smack them with a rolling pin until broken. Freezing them (briefly!) first helps keep the chocolate from sticking to the bag.Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Recipe updated June 2023. Original recipe can be found here, but I now recommend this new one.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Amy
Hi Sam. I keep seeing comments about butterscotch pudding mix but I don’t see it in the recipe. Am I overlooking it somehow?
Sam
Hi Amy! The original recipe did use a pudding mix, but I updated the recipe. If you are still interested in the other version, I did leave a link to it in the notes section below. 🙂
Jodi
Hi Sam! Are these able to be refrigerated overnight before baking?
I know I’m going to overwhelm myself and not get all of my plans (cookies) done in one day😬
Sam
Hi Jodi! That should work just fine. 🙂
Paige Larson
I’ve made these 2 times now and getting ready to make them a 3rd time. It’s my first cookie recipe using pudding mix and WOW I think it makes a huge difference. I made ‘The Worst Chocolate Chip Cookie’ recipe (for the umpteenth time) at the same time. A week later these still were just as chewy and moist while the WCCC were falling apart yet stored in the same (separate) tight seal tupperware.
These are my next favorite drop, roll, slight smush style cookies from this blog!
Sam
That’s a lot of cookie making! I’m impressed they lasted a week. That’s some good self control. 😉
Rhonda Ledbetter
My picky eater grandson said it all…”Mmmm!” (Even the raw dough was yummy!)
Sam
I’m so happy to hear this, Rhonda! Thank you so much for trying my recipe! 🙂
Debbie Bowman
Hi there. Getting ready to try these cookies and had a difficult time finding instant butterscotch pudding. All they had was the sugar free version. Sam should I add something to the cookies to compensate? Thanks much!
Sam
Hi Debbie! I haven’t tried it with sugar free pudding so I’m not certain how it will turn out but I don’t think you should need to add anything else. Would you let me know how they turn out with the sugar free pudding?
Debbie
No problems with sugar free pudding mix. They were devoured ❤
Sugar Spun Run
Good to know! Thanks for the update. I am glad that everyone enjoyed the cookies, Debbie! 🙂
Megan
Instead of Butterfinger can you substitute Snickers? (My all time FAVE). I was debating giving it a whirl, but not sure if the butterscotch pudding would mess with the taste. I have nothing at all against Butterfinger, but definitely a Snikers girl! Thanks!
Sam
I think it will work just fine. They may try to stick to each other a little bit more from the caramel, but they should still turn out. Let me know how it works! ☺️
Annette
Now that you can get Butterfinger Baking Bits or pre-smashed Butterfingers, do you know how much would go into the cookie dough? A whole bag (10 or 11 oz.)? Thanks.
Barb
Loved these!! Very soft cookies!
Karly
You always succeed in doing two things every time I drop by. One, you always crack me up! And two, you ALWAYS got me droolin’, man. These cookies look too good not to overindulge!
Sam
Definitely a teaspoon. I hope you love the cookies!
Amanda
I once had a ring stuck to my hand and I really had to rub a lot of veggie oil on there to get it off. Good luck!
I know a Butterfinger fan who will love these. I can’t wait to try them. Do you think Butterfinger peanut butter cups would be good in here too?
Sam
I finally did get it, thank you Amanda! I think the butterfinger pb cups would be SO good in these!
Sues
Haha! I definitely thought your ring was stuck from the heat… But maybe it is from the cookies! As far as I see it, that’s soooo worth it! These look incredible!
Sam
Thank you so much, Sues! 🙂
Pat
Sam
Try putting the ring hand in cool, not cold water for about 3 minutes. Then put a ton of dish liquid on the ring finger. Work the ring around as much as it will move and get a lot of the soap under it if you can. Make sure the entire finger has a coating of the soap and put it now under slow moving running warm, not hot water and it should come off.
Hugs, Pat
Sam
That’s so funny, Pat, shortly before I saw your comment that’s pretty much exactly how I got it off. I was doing dishes and figured I’d grease up my finger with dishsoap and try to pull it off. It was tight and it still hurt, but I’m free now! Thank you so much! <3
Stephanie
Please remove all rings and wear elastic waistband pants. We need your perfection baking skills! I am hanging onto this for after Halloween. You cannot go wrong with Butterfingers or pudding mix. (The ingredients list butterscotch candies…not sure if that is a typo…)
Sam
Haha thank you, Stephanie! This is perfect for after Halloween, we ALWAYS seem to have butterfingers left over. And YES, good catch on the typo! Can I blame the ring for cutting off circulation to my brain, too? Fixing it now!
Vanessa @Vanessa Baked
Yes – Huge butterfinger fan here! What an awesome cookie combo! 🙂
JOANN COLLINS
I have made these cookies four times in a row! They are fabulous–soft and delicious Unbelievably I had trouble finding the butterscotch pudding. Had to go to three stores but bought a couple at a time–need more when the craving hits. Great recipe!.
Sam
I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed, Joann! Thank you so much for commenting 🙂