23 Oct Maple Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies

A few weeks ago, just days before my birthday (!!!), I received the most epic of epic packages in the mail. The kind of package that makes you first, do giddy little dances around your kitchen second, post dreamy pictures to your Instagram account, and third, open all five flavors and conduct a taste test by unashamedly dunking your finger into each. Yep, I’m talking about peanut butter.

FIVE KINDS. (The Bees Knees. Cinnamon Raisin Swirl. Dark Chocolate Dreams. White Chocolate Wonderful. Mighy Maple.)

Some women like ribbon-tied blue boxes filled with shiny things. Me? I like ugly brown boxes filled to the brim with peanut butter. Ok, that’s definitely mostly a lie. We’ll call it a tie, for these cookies’ (and Steve’s wallet’s) sake.

As much as I wanted to go all peanut butter monster and hide behind my untouched winter coats in the darkest corner of my closet with my box and a sleeve of Ritz Crackers, my food-blogger conscience got the best of me because, after all, peanut butter is for sharing. Or so say my skinny jeans.

Maple is definitely my favorite flavor this fall, so not surprisingly, the Mighty Maple flavor was a huge stand out for me. Pumpkin, of course, reigns king of all fall confections, but maple is not to be ignored. And the more I dream about scarves, apple picking, and living in a red & golden autumn wonderland (because dreaming is all I can do, forecast says 92F this weekend – ugh) the more I want to smother everything in maple.

The inspiration for these cookies (as if I needed more) came from a local Austin cookie company, Tiff’s Treats. They bake up the best damn cookies you ever had, then deliver them to your door while they’re still warm. Don’t even get me started, it should be illegal. I’ve spent more time than I’m willing to admit scouring the internet for their recipe secrets with zero success. A few weeks ago a couple dozen were delivered to my office for a coworker’s birthday, aaand since warm cookies are the crack cocaine of the workplace, I indulged. I grabbed what I thought was a peanut butter cookie only to have my tastebuds completely blown away by what was actually their flavor of the week – Maple Toffee. Seriously, why don’t I think of these things?

So these cookies happened, and I’m kind of a copycat. But I added peanut butter, so there.

These Maple Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies flirt with the line between chewy and crispy. Bake them for just the right amount of time and you achieve a perfect balance between the two. You know, if you’re into that kind of thing. Brown sugar exclusivity not only enhances the chewy texture, but also adds an extra layer of warmth to the already cozy, autumnal notes from the maple. And the toffee bits? Not to be forgotten. We’re folding them in and sprinkling them on top to elevate these guys to next level cookie badass-ness. When baked, the toffee forms little melty pockets that are chewy (sensing a theme here), caramel-y, and oh my gawd irresistable.

Here’s a good place to note that the peanut butter used in this recipe was provided courtesy of  Peanut Butter & Co. This is not a sponsored post, so while I did not pay for the product, I also was not required to tell you guys about it…I just really, really like their peanut butter.  The brand is widely available — I know they sell it at most markets around me — so should the spirit move you, getcha’ some!

A Few Notes About This Recipe

I used Peanut Butter & Co.’s Mighty Maple flavored peanut butter in this recipe, but you can sub plain peanut butter if needed. I would recommend increasing the maple extract by 1/2 to 1 teaspoon if going this route. 

I used half light brown sugar, half dark brown sugar in this recipe because I didn’t want the molasses to conflict with all the other flavors in these cookies, but I don’t think that it made much of a difference — use whatever you have on hand!

While I do think natural maple syrup for flavor is the best, I chose to use maple extract in the recipe instead because substituting syrup for brown sugar would have affected the texture of the cookie. BUT if you try with syrup, let me know how they turn out! 

Enjoy! XO, Katie

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