I love raisins, but people have very strong opinions about them in oatmeal cookies, so when I make these oatmeal cookies I replace them with the closest thing - Snickers. They're called Brown Butter Oatmeal Snickers Cookies because guess what? They also contain brown butter -- but not just any brown butter. I use a secret sludge of brown butter mixed with milk powder. It adds flavor and makes the cookies a little softer...but not too soft! These are still very chewy thanks to the chopped Snickers Minis.
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Why Make These?
Anything with Snickers sounds good, but in this recipe the peanut and nougat candy is perfect because it melts into a sweet and chewy consistency that goes well with the texture of the oats. And there are a lot of oats. In fact, you may recognize the ratios from an old favorite oatmeal cookie recipe, Quaker's Best. One reason I've always liked that recipe is because it has more butter than most and less sugar. The amount of butter gives you just enough extra (4 tablespoons) for browning with the milk powder.
Brown Butter and Milk Sludge
When you brown all of the butter in a cookie recipe, you lose a significant amount of moisture which some cookies need. But you can get almost as much flavor by browning just a portion of the butter and even more by adding milk powder and browning it along with the butter. It's easy to do, but you have to keep an eye on it since the milk powder browns quickly. The end result should look something like this. You scrape it into a custard cup, let it cool, then add it to the cookie dough. This little flavor booster is good in all kind of cookies. I'll post a few more that use it soon.
Snickers Minis
And then you've got your Snickers. I like to use the Snickers Minis which are little square shaped Snickers. The amount is up to you, but for the full batch you'll probably need somewhere around 2 cups roughly chopped Snickers. The candy melts into the cookies, but not all the way. You can definitely see and feel the melted Snickers.
Cookie Size and Yield
I usually make these pretty large at about 2 oz each. I've never tried making them huge, as in 5 oz each, but that would probably be good for a bakery style cookie. They'd be okay as smaller cookies too, I'm sure.
Elevating the Baking Sheet
The recipe is pretty straightforward, but along with browning the butter and using Snickers, the other thing I do is elevate the baking sheet by stacking it on a smaller rimmed pan. I've been doing this a lot lately because it keeps the bottoms less cooked which makes the cookies bend more. You get the same effect if you bake your cookies on a piece of parchment laid directly on a baking stone. You would think a baking stone would make cookie bottoms harder, but it's the opposite. The whole obsession I have lately with cookie bottoms is thanks to Potbelly. I had one of their oatmeal cookies the other day and just loved how it kind of fell apart. But theirs don't have Snickers!
So if you are looking for a good oatmeal cookie recipe for the upcoming holidays or just need an excuse to buy a bag of Snickers Minis, I hope you'll give these a try.
Recipe
Brown Butter Oatmeal Snickers Cookies
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 chunks (56 grams)
- 2 teaspoons dry milk powder
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (230 grams)
- ¾ cup light brown sugar (150 grams)
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (195 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt plus another pinch, optional**
- 3 cups oats, old fashioned or quick
- 1 ¾ cups cut up Mini Snickers plus 10 cut in half You can use more or less Snickers squares
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Have ready 2 parchment lined baking sheets and a smaller rimmed pan such as a 9x13 inch cake pan that you can put under it.
- Melt the 4 tablespoons of butter (4 chunks) in a small saucepan over medium low heat. When fully melted, stir in the milk powder. Cook butter and milk powder together stirring and tilting/swirling pan until brown bits start to form and mixture is fragrant. To keep butter and milk from burning. You may need to repeatedly lift and hold the pan over the burner rather than directly on it while stirring. The goal is for brown bits to form, so as soon as you start to smell brown butter and see plenty of brown bits, you can remove it from the heat. Scrape into a small bowl and let your fragrant brown sludge cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- With an electric mixer, beat the remaining 2 sticks of unsalted softened butter until creamy, then beat in the brown and granulated sugars. Beat for another 2 minutes.
- Add the egg and beat for another minute or until mixture is very light and fluffy. Scrape in the cooled browned butter mixture and the vanilla and beat well.
- Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt and stir in the batter, then add the oats and stir until blended.
- Lastly, stir in the Snickers, sampling to make sure they are the fresh. Very important.
- Divide dough into 22 equal size pieces (about 2 oz each) and shape each piece into a ball. Press the balls slightly to flatten tops. Arrange on dinner plates and cover with plastic. Chill until ready to use or bake immediately.
- Arrange rounds on a parchment lined baking sheet spacing about 2 ½ inches apart.
- Bake one sheet at a time for about 15 minutes or until brown around the edges. About a minute before the cookies are done, quickly place a half Snickers square in the center of each cookie and continue baking until done.
- Let cool slightly on cookie sheet for about 3 minutes, then slide (or carefully lift) parchment and place on a cool surface. Let the cookies cool on the parchment.
- If you'd like to try baking on an elevated baking sheet, instead of setting your baking sheet directly on the oven rack, set it on top of a slightly smaller pan (such as a 9x13 inch cake pan) and bake as directed.
Dinah says
I hope to make these soon. I appreciate that Snickers are your next closest replacement for raisins in cookies because I am also particular about raisins!