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.
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Peanut Butter Toffee Bit Cookies
Ingredients
- 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
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
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Toffee Desserts:
ALL OF MY RECIPES FEATURING TOFFEE!
Spiced Toffee Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting — Looking for recipes using spice cake mix? Make this spiced toffee cake! It’s an EASY, soft, and fluffy spice cake with toffee bits inside and on top!! The frosting is AMAZING and takes this cake over the top!!
Toffee Bars — An ultra butttery base made with almond extract and topped with chocolate and toffee bits! An easy dessert that’s ready in 15 minutes but tastes like you slaved over it!
Pumpkin Caramel Poke Cake — Easy and the best pumpkin cake ever! Two kinds of caramel sauce, toffee bits, chocolate chips, whipped topping and more!
Toffee Butterscotch Cake — Butterscotch sundae topping isn’t just for ice cream – it makes AWESOME poke cakes!! Along with the irresistibly crunchy toffee bits, this is a perfect fast and EASY cake everyone will love!!
Graham Cracker Toffee Bars— If you’re looking for a recipe that will disappear at holiday parties, cookie exchanges, neighborhood potlucks, or school bake sales, this graham cracker toffee is a guaranteed winner!!
Melt in Your Mouth Homemade Toffee — Irresistible, buttery, ADDICTIVE, and just melts in your mouth!! EASY and perfect for holiday parties, gift-giving, or cookie exchanges!!
Chocolate Gingerbread Cake — An EASY, no mixer cake that’s perfect for the holidays!! Chocolate and ginger are amazing together! The GINGER spiced whipped cream is the literal icing on this cake!!
So, I’ve made these several times. The finished product is quite tasty, but the recipe is written as if you end up with a cohesive cookie dough. You don’t. It’s like wet sand. I have to form the dough balls by hand and press them together for this to work. I’ve thought about subbing in a jumbo egg, perhaps. I follow the recipe to the T– non-natural peanut butter, mixing for the appropriate time– this is not to deter anyone from making these delicious cookies, I just think the recipe could be a little clearer re: dough texture. Who knows? I live in Maine and usually make these in the winter, when it’s quite dry. Maybe that has something to do with it. Side note: they’re also very delicious with the toffee bits that don’t have chocolate on them, as well!
Thank you for the feedback. Flourless peanut butter cookies in general have a different type of dough than dough that includes flour. If you would like the dough to resemble more traditional cookie dough, add flour in 1/4 cup increments, up to about 3/4 of a cup, and that will help thicken up the dough. It will also change the texture of the finish cookies, not bad, just different. I’m glad that you enjoy the cookies overall!
Oh Jess! Thank you so much for this! I *wish* I’d seen it before I abandoned the cookies all together :( I assumed I’d done something horribly wrong! I’ll have to try again another time, what a waist!
So, I’ve made these several times. The finished product is quite tasty, but the recipe is written as if you end up with a cohesive cookie dough. You don’t. It’s like wet sand. I have to form the dough balls by hand and press them together for this to work. I’ve thought about subbing in a jumbo egg, perhaps. I follow the recipe to the T– non-natural peanut butter, mixing for the appropriate time– this is not to deter anyone from making these delicious cookies, I just think the recipe could be a little clearer re: dough texture. Who knows? I live in Maine and usually make these in the winter, when it’s quite dry. Maybe that has something to do with it. Side note: they’re also very delicious with the toffee bits that don’t have chocolate on them, as well!
SO Hey I made The Dell, are used normal peanut butter, I doubled the recipe, is it normal to have a bout a cup of liquid? Oil? In the bottom of the bowl
No it is not normal but I have never doubled the recipe.
My daughters and I LOVE baking your cookie recipes, and this one is a new favorite! My oldest daughter just baked this one for our local fair’s cookie contest, and won first place! Thanks for the great recipes!
That’s so great that it won first place! Thanks for the info and so glad you and your daughters love baking (my recipes) together! So nice to hear!
Hi Averie! I have these frozen and ready to bake out for this weekend. How much time would you add to the baketime if baking from frozen? Thanks!
Maybe about 1-2 minutes. Just watch them in the oven and use your judgment but not very much extra baking time is required. Enjoy!
I saw these on pinterest and I thought I had to try them. I thought they would be different but I have been making this same recipe for years and like you, I like the addition of brown sugar instead of white sugar. They are so much better that way. My grandmother found out she was allergic to flour long before anyone had ever heard of celiac disease. And this was one of my favorite recipes to make her. I have added all kinds of stuff to them including white chocolate chips, peanut butter cups, nuts, toffee, coconut…you name it, I tried it. I have also tried it with natural peanut butter, cashew butter, almond butter, etc….it always turns out really tasty for me.
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it came out great for you! And that it’s a long-standing favorite!
Thanks for the recipe. I have been making a similar recipe but without toffee bits in it instead I used oats and dark chocolate chips. I also make them into bars using an 8×8 pan instead of cookies. They are delish! I am addicted! Made them with the toffee they were scrumptious and as bars still chewey on the inside and a bit crispier around the edges. I pressed into 8×8 pan lined with parchment and Pam baked at 350 for about 18/20 minutes. Amazing!
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it came out great for you as bars!