Butterfinger Cookies Recipe: A Royal Treat from the Sweet Potato Queens with gluten-free options

“Turns out chocolate is O-fficially good for you.  Some of us didn’t need years of expensive science to tell us that.”–Jill Conner Browne

Queenly Reading 📖

I remember when The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love (and subsequent series) was all the rage in the late 90s/early 2000s. It seemed as if most of the women with whom I worked and interacted at that time period were reading, cooking, or buying products related to the book written by Jill Conner Browne. There were “queenly” gatherings in which each person who attended brought with them a prepared dish based upon one of Browne’s recipes.  Attending these get-togethers often included donning a tiara, sparkling clothes, perhaps a colorful boa, or some outrageous jewelry. Some even carried a scepter, usually a child’s version that made noise and lit up–after all, it wasn’t serious. 

Ultimately, those dinners were centered around laughing and enjoying life. Even though life grew busier as kids became older, careers shifted, and life pulled in different directions, those “royal times” made for good memories.  Not to mention, the book became a resource of tasty recipes, and my daughter’s dress-up box benefitted with all the fun accouterments from that time period. 

Basic Food Groups 🥧🍟🥓🧈

Many years later, I look back on those recipes and that time period with fondness.  I was young, and my metabolism was still revving compared to now.  Plus, I was ignorant of the fact I had celiac disease and acid reflux.  All those recipes tasted soooo good, but . . . no wonder I had such digestive upheaval afterwards! 

That’s because Browne believes all good recipes should be centered around four food groups: “sweet, salty, fried, and au gratin”! Her Mississippi roots shine through the foods she featured in her books, official website, and social media.  She unabashedly still proclaims her love of eating for any and all reasons. Her enthusiasm for southern food is contagious when you read the way in which she describes food and the various life scenarios that “require” comfort food.

Fandom 👸

To this day, Browne, and her Sweet Potato Queens, have legions of followers.  There is a play about the Sweet Potato Queens, and there is an annual SPQ’s weekend event each year around St. Patrick’s day. Plus, chapters of Sweet Potato Queens remain throughout the U.S., and there are several Facebook groups dedicated to the “queenly” cause. 

While I don’t, per se, follow Browne and her fans, I do appreciate her literary and culinary contributions, and I appreciate the way she doesn’t appear to take herself, or her love of food, too seriously. She uplifts women and makes food, and the gatherings/traditions around food, a social celebration.

Family Favorite 🍪

At one time, I had a handful of SPQ recipes I regularly prepared. Now, however, there remains one recipe I still make, and it is a family favorite, Butterfinger cookies.  As it turns out, original Butterfinger candy bars (not any of the other iterations) are gluten-free. However, back “in-the-day,” pre-celiac diagnosis, I would not have known, much less noticed.  All I knew is that Browne had me with a recipe whose main ingredient is peanut butter.  Toss in candy bars with chocolate and peanut butter? What could be tastier?

That said, these are not cookies I often make, saving them for special events. This is mostly because breaking and/or cutting up all of those candy bars and mixing them into the thick cookie dough takes time and a hefty dose of elbow grease.  However, all the effort is worth it in the end because this recipe bakes up over 60 cookies that are a balanced mixture of sweet, salty, and rich–perfect for sharing with others.

In fact, this is a recipe I make for my husband’s annual fishing trip to the north woods of Canada with his buddies.  In their younger years, he would share that the cookies were often all eaten before they arrived at their destination. I will note, however, when I bake these cookies for their fishing trip, I do not make them gluten-free.  However, if I am going to bake them for a family event, and I want to enjoy a few, I will then use an all-purpose, 1:1 gluten-free flour. 

REcipe Adaptations 🧑‍🍳

While the original recipe does call for chunky peanut butter, I have always made it with creamy peanut butter, and the cookies turn out fine. The cookies are chewy and hold up to being dipped in milk, tea, or coffee.  They are also nice slightly heated in the microwave.

There are two other adaptations I have made to the original recipe.  First, Browne’s recipe calls for one stick of butter.  However, my grandmother taught me that when baking, you should use equal amounts of butter and shortening.  This gives your baking the rich, buttery flavor, but also gives recipes both lift and tenderness. Hence, you will notice my adaptation has ½ cup butter and ½ cup shortening. 

The other adaptation I made is to add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. This is a recipe trick I learned from gluten-free baking. The ACV not only acts as an additional leavening agent to the baking soda, but it also enhances the depth of the flavor of baked goods.

I hope you’ll give this recipe your best “royal” effort!  It is not only a tasty treat, but worthy of sharing with those in your monarchy and at all royal, or not-so-royal, events.  

Butterfinger Cookies

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup sugar

1 ⅓ cup dark brown sugar

½ stick of butter

½ cup shortening

4 eggs

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 ½ cups peanut butter, preferably chunky, but I’ve never used chunky and they taste great to me

2 cups flour, gluten free variation if needed, either an all purpose 1:1 flour or oat flour works best

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

20 or so ounces’ worth of butterfinger bars, crunched, crushed, or cut up

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Cream together sugars, butter, shortening, eggs, cider, and vanilla extract.

Blend in peanut butter

In a separate bowl, blend together flour, baking soda and salt.

Mix into cookie dough

Mix in candy bars

Drop by heaping teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets

Bake for 7-9 minutes or until golden brown

Allow to cool on cookie sheet for at least 2 minutes

Then, move cookies to cooling rack to completely cool

Store in airtight container

Keeps for 7+ days, if they last that long

Makes 60 plus cookies