{Recipe Recap} Concession Stand Cookies

I made these cookies last week on Thursday.  See, the McHusband and I were supposed to go to an outdoor concert here in town with Ryan and Sandra and their kids, but the buckets of rain, thunder, and lightning put a slight damper (hah!) on those plans.  Part of the appeal of the outdoor concert was that you could bring a picnic dinner (or dessert if you preferred) and drinks.  So of course I had to use that excuse as an opportunity to make something new to share. 

I also had in mind that I was going with three girlfriends on Saturday to see The Heat, and I figured they’d appreciate something sweet during the movie.  So I I figured what better treat than cookies made with candy in them.  Luckily Shelly had just what I was looking for.

Shelly’s cookies are based on Jessica’s simply delicious peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  I’ll have to try the original recipe sometime but with white chocolate chips so the McHusband won’t complain that I ruined the cookies with chocolate.  But back to the cookies I did make…

These were peanut butter cookies, but they weren’t over-the-top peanut butter-y.  And then there were my add-ins: regular Kit Kats, white chocolate Kit Kats, Reese’s Pieces, and Milk Duds, which I chopped into quarters. 

Texture-wise, these baked up just how I liked.  Just a touch crisp at the edges and then chewy and soft throughout the rest.  They aren’t cake-y and rubbery at all.

I used a pretty big scoop for these and I didn’t flatten the first batch at all.  The cookies stayed rounded in the middle once they were fully baked, which was okay, but I didn’t want to chance crunchy edges and a doughy center so I flattened the rest of the the batches just a touch and this worked perfectly.  This next picture shows you my puffy first batch, a perfect subsequent batch, and a flatter, more spread out final batch.  I don’t know if the results of that last batch were due to Silpat vs. parchment paper or the fact that the dough was the warmest of all by then.  Doesn’t matter, the cookies were still fabulous.

Oh, the one other thing I did to make these irresistible?  I sprinkled some fine seat salt on them before baking.  I’m telling you guys, if you haven’t tried adding salt to your cookies yet, you have to try it.

The McHusband says these are the best cookies I’ve ever made, and he’s already requested them for Mustang Week trip later this month.  I’ll make them again, but he has to promise to take them ALL with him.  I can’t be trusted to be alone with them for too long.

{Recipe adapted from here}