Soft and Chewy Toffee and Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Toffee Bit Cookies — You need just 6 simple ingredients to make these toffee cookies! The peanut butter cookie dough is accidentally gluten-free and packed with toffee bits! 

Easy Toffee Cookie Recipe

One of my favorite cookies are my blog are these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies And one of my favorite, but underused, add-ins are toffee bits. Why not combine the two? So I did.

I recently saw Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits in the Target baking aisle and promptly tossed them in my cart for a rainy day.

Toffee bits remind me of riding my bike to Dairy Queen for Heath Bar Blizzards during the summer when I was a kid. It was an extra quarter to get like quadruple the amount of Heath bar chunks. Money well spent.

The rainy day came much sooner than anticipated in the form of these soft, slightly chewy, extra peanut buttery cookies loaded with toffee bits.

I used my recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies and instead of adding chocolate chunks, I added the toffee and milk chocolate bits. No earth-shattering changes made, but the recipe is so good as written, and I didn’t want to mess with it much.

That recipe boasts, “There’s no flour, no butter, and no white sugar used”, and it’s one of my most popular recipes on Pinterest.

These toffee crunch cookies are the same. There’s no flour, butter, or white sugar added.

Please don’t write to tell me that brown sugar is really just white sugar with molasses. I’ve been told that one or four hundred times. I am not making a health claim about the sugar. I am making a taste claim.

I love the way brown sugar-based cookies taste. And brown sugar always creates softer cookies than those made with white sugar and these are wonderfully soft.

Because there’s no butter and no flour to dilute the flavor, you’re left with intensely peanut buttery cookies. The best kind.

The recipe makes 12 to 14 cookies. Perfect when you don’t want or need the temptation that comes from having oodles of peanut butter cookies just laying around.

The crunchy toffee adds an amazing texture contrast to an otherwise buttery soft dough. They also add slight saltiness, playing up the salty-and-sweet element.

There’s just enough chocolate to add flavor, without detracting from the full-on peanut butter punch these cookies pack.

My family said these are the best cookies I’ve ever made. Grab the napkins. Enjoy.

What’s in the PB Toffee Bit Cookies? 

To make these peanut butter toffee cookies, you’ll need just six basic ingredients: 

• Creamy peanut butter
• Light brown sugar
• Egg
• Vanilla extract
• Baking soda
• Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits

How to Make Toffee Bit Cookies

These toffee crunch cookies couldn’t be easier to make! Just cream together the butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla until completely smooth (this will take about 5 minutes). 

Stir in the baking soda and toffee bits, then roll the dough into balls and chill for at least 2 hours. 

Once chilled, the dough can be baked. You want to bake the cookies just until the edges are set and the tops are barely set, even if slightly under baked in the center. 

Can I Use a Natural Peanut Butter?

No! I bake with either Jif Creamy or store brand peanut butter from Ralph’s grocery store. It’s half the price of Jif and I get similar results. 

Don’t use natural or Homemade Peanut Butter. It will exacerbate the oily issues, cause the cookies to spread, and bake thin and flat. Sometimes people write to say they baked with natural peanut butter and had success, but it’s a gamble.

Can I Make the Cookie Dough in Advance? 

There’s no harm in making the dough, forming it into balls, and keeping them in the fridge for up to 5 days before baking, or freezing unbaked dough for up to 4 months.

Bake as directed whenever you’re ready to bake. I have at least 10 different kinds of unbaked cookie dough at any given time just hanging out in my fridge and freezer. Rainy days.

Tips for Making Toffee Cookies

You must really cream the first four ingredients together, very well, for at least 5 minutes, and more if you’re not using a stand mixer. Don’t shortchange this step.

The dough is oily. There’s no flour and nowhere for the oil to be absorbed, so the dough is oily, and some brands of peanut butter are more oily than others.

You must chill the dough for at least 2 hours. No exceptions. Warm, limp, oily, flourless dough becomes a hot mess in the oven and your cookies will turn into crispy pancakes.

Save Saved Review Print

4.50 from 14 votes

Peanut Butter Toffee Bit Cookies

By Averie Sunshine

You need just 6 ingredients to make these toffee cookies! The cookie dough is accidentally gluten-free and packed with toffee bits! 

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes minutes

Total Time: 18 minutes minutes

Servings: 14

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Ingredients  

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• ▢ 1 cup creamy peanut butter, Do not use natural or homemade peanut butter, it’s too runny and can separate – see note below
• ▢ 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ one 8-ounce bag Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits

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Instructions 

• To the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or using an electric mixer, combine peanut butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well-combined and the sugar is fully incorporated and is mixture is no longer gritty or granular, about 5 minutes, or as long as necessary (7 to 8 minutes).*
• Add the baking soda and beat to incorporate, about 1 minute on medium-low speed.
• Add the toffee bits and beat to just incorporate; don’t overmix.
• Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form heaping mounds of 2 to 3 tablespoon each.
• Place mounds on a large plate, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Chilling is mandatory, do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter.
• Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet).
• Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, or until edges are set and tops are barely set, even if slightly underbaked in the center. Cookies firm up as they cool, and baking too long results in cookies that become too crisp and hard. The cookies in the photos were baked for 8 minutes, and have chewy edges with soft centers.
• Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling.

Notes

*Step 1 note: If beating with a hand mixer rather than a stand mixer, 7 minutes+ may be necessary. Don’t shortcut this step. Stop to scrape down the bowl as necessary. Batter may seem oily; this is okay. 

Note regarding peanut butter: Although natural peanut butter or homemade peanut butter may work, I recommend using storebought peanut butter like Jif, Skippy, Peter Pan or similar so that cookies bake up thicker and spread less. Using natural or homemade peanut butter tends to result in thinner and flatter cookies that are prone to spreading while baking.

Storage: Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 4 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.

Nutrition

Serving: 1, Calories: 254kcal, Carbohydrates: 27g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 15g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g, Cholesterol: 24mg, Sodium: 204mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 23g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.

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