Chocolate Fudge Butterfinger Cookies

To say it is absolutely the worst kept secret ever that I am a fan of chocolate would be the most obvious statement I could make. It should come as no surprise whatsoever then that ever since Jenny at Picky Palate shared a recipe for Chocolate Fudge Butterfinger Cookies back at the beginning of November I haven't been able to get them out of my mind. My only problem has been actually remembering to grab some candy bars at the store. For some reason, I could never remember until I was already back in the truck and on the way home. As you can imagine, since I'm into the homestretch of this pregnancy, and always have to overly energetic, wild little boys with me, the idea of taking them back to the store just for candy bars - no matter how bad I wanted to try making those cookies!

When I was at the store earlier this week and in the checkout line I happened to glance over and notice the candy bars and finally grabbed them! I didn't have the recipe in front of me and couldn't remember how many I was supposed to get, so I grabbed four of them (they were 2/$1 anyway, so not too bad).

I got home and looked over the recipe more thoroughly, and since I know I can never leave well enough alone, I just had to fiddle with the recipe a bit. I'm sure that Jenny's version is perfectly fantastic, but for my purposes I knew I had something slightly different in mind. If you look at Jenny's cookies they look thicker and slightly fluffier. When I thought of these cookies all I could think about was having lots of spots of melty, chewy candy bar in the cookie, in addition to just a few melty spots of chocolate. Overall I wanted a chewier cookie and thought that incorporating as much candy bar into the cookie as possible would get the result I wanted, while still giving me a huge hit of chocolate flavor in the cookie.

So, while Jenny's cookies look to be a lighter textured version, have no doubt that I made my version a little thinner, chewier and chock full of melted and gooey candy in the cookie. I did taste the cookie dough when I had only added two of the candy bars and thought that the Butterfinger flavor wasn't as pronounced as I wanted it to be, so throwing caution to the wind I went ahead and added double the amount originally called for. To offset that a bit I cut the amount of chocolate chips I added to the dough in half from the original recipe. I also increased the amount of vanilla extract and salt (and used fine sea salt) added to the recipe to just boost those flavors a bit more. The only other change I made was to increase the amount of cocoa powder slightly and used a Dutch processed cocoa - mainly because that is what I prefer and have on hand.

So, whichever way you like them, my thanks go out to Jenny for a wonderful recipe that gave me a great time playing around with - without failing miserably on me because I fiddled so much! Please be sure to check out Jenny's original post for her version as well.

Chocolate Fudge Butterfinger Cookies

Adapted from Picky Palate

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar


3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed


2 large eggs


1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


1 3/4 cups flour


1 1/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch processed


2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

4 Full size Butterfinger Candy Bars

¾ cup good-quality chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats (like silpat). Set aside.

Remove the Butterfinger Candy Bars from their wrappers and place in a large plastic zip top bag. Using a rolling pin gently smash and crush the candy bars by tapping them in the bag until broken up into pieces of all sizes – you want some crushed and some bigger pieces to remain (largest pieces about the size of large chocolate chips). Set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and sea salt until well combined. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, preferably with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, beating for 1 minute until well incorporated. Add the vanilla and mix well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add the flour-cocoa mixture a little at a time to the butter mixture on the lowest speed until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.

Still on the lowest speed add in the Butterfinger pieces and the chocolate chips and stir together until well incorporated.

Scoop cookies onto prepared baking sheets into about 1-inch sized balls (a small cookie scoop is perfect for this – they will be about the size of a generously rounded teaspoon).

Place the baking sheets, one at a time, in the oven to bake for 8-10 minutes until just set, but still soft in the center. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Makes 60 cookies