Take 5 Cookies - Week Five

For week five, I made yet another "drop" cookie.  These babies were inspired by Halloween.  We passed out Take 5 miniature candy bars and miniature Rolos to the trick-or-treaters.  My head started spinning with excitement because I realized that the candy could easily make one amazing cookie.  

I was absolutely thrilled with the result.  These cookies turned out pretty good.  I did leave them in the oven a tad too long (does anyone know how to work with a fluctuating oven?) so they were slightly harder than I wanted them to be, but they still tasted great.  In the future, I will likely add more peanut butter and less cocoa powder because the chocolate was definitely prominent, but the peanut butter not so much.  I actually worked with a base recipe that I've used dozens of time and then added the pretzels and peanuts on a whim.  I used honey roasted because I thought it might enhance the flavor more even though true Take 5 candy bars use roasted peanuts.

I thought that I had created some groundbreaking cookie, but of course I turned to the internet and found out that people have been making similar cookies since the Take 5 candy bar first hit the shelves several years ago.  Oh well.  Most of their recipes used actual Take 5 bars in the batter.  And, mine was more innovative, so I'll take it! :)

Take 5 Cookies

adapted from Picky Palate

Yield:  3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt.
• 3/4 cup crushed pretzels
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup crushed honey roasted peanuts
• One package of rolo candies, unwrapped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Slowly add eggs and vanilla until well combined.  Then add peanut butter until combined.
3. In another bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  Slowly add to wet ingredients (batter will be very thick) then stir/fold in the pretzels and peanuts.
4. Using a medium (Tbsp.) cookie scoop, scoop out rounds of dough.  Slightly flatten the dough and place one unwrapped rolo candy in the center.  Fold up the sides and wrap around the rolo to form a ball, making sure that the rolo is completely covered.  Place onto prepared cookie sheet and repeat as follows.
5. Bake for 9-12 minutes until the cookies are still slightly soft but will firm up while cooling on the sheet for 5 minutes.  Remove cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.