These Salted Peanut Candy Corn Cookies are the perfect sweet and salty combo!
Apparently there are a lot of people in the world who hate candy corn. I do not really understand it. It’s basically just sugar and honey dyed into pretty colors, what is wrong with that, I ask of you?
I have always loved candy corn (hashtag duh), but last year I heard that if you mixed candy corn and salted peanuts together, it tasted like a Payday candy bar.
I also love Payday candy bars, so I gave it a whirl. Giving it a whirl involved a trip to the actual store for salted peanuts, because while I always keep candy corn stocked during the Fall months, I heard a rumor that you can’t keep salted peanuts stocked until you are of retirement age. Being in my early 20’s still (cough), salted peanuts are just not something I keep in my pantry. But for the sake of Payday candy bars, I bought the peanuts and good grief, it’s an amazing snack.
I’ve been keeping a large dish of the peanut/candy corn mixture on an end table in my living room, and I swear that I’m refilling it every other day. The other day I asked who kept eating the candy corn mixture (it’s out of Lucy’s reach, so she’s ruled out) and my son said, “gross, I hate peanuts and they rub salt off on the candy corn” and my husband looked at me blankly and asked, “the what?”.
What I’m saying is, I’ve been eating it all myself and not even realizing it. I don’t know why that doesn’t work with kale chips or apples or lima beans, but it just doesn’t. Just candy corn/peanuts. But I’ve decided that a few extra pounds makes a person look younger, so I’m trying to look at it as a fountain of youth. A candy corn/peanut youth fountain. Please tell me this is making sense.
Because I am currently inhaling this combo like it is air or reality television, I decided that it needed to be baked into a cookie. A chewy, buttery, sweet and salty cookie. Which was a particularly good idea, if I do say so.
One note on these cookies — like marshmallows, candy corn will melt when they reach a certain temperature. To keep your cookies from having gooey, melty edges, make sure when you make your cookie dough balls that the candy is completely covered in dough. That keeps the candy corn contained to the cookie so you don’t have a mess on your hands. It’s an easy fix — if you notice a chunk of candy corn hanging out of your cookie before you bake it, pinch off a piece of cookie dough and slap it over the top. Okay?
Okay.
Ingredients
- 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 heaping TBS instant vanilla pudding mix
- 2 sticks salted butter, slightly softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg plus one large egg yolk
- 1 cup candy corn
- 1 cup salted peanuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and pudding mix and set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy -- about two minutes. Add the egg and egg yolk one at a time, scraping the bowl after each. Add extract and beat until blended.
- With the mixer on medium low, slowly add the flour mixture until fully combined. With a spatula, stir the dough from the bottom a few times to make sure that everything is well mixed. Fold in candy corn and salted peanuts.
- Measure dough out by 1/4 cup fulls on lined baking sheet, about 3 inches apart, making sure your candy corn are tucked into your dough instead of laying on top of it. Your cookies will come out great either way, but candy corn on the outside of your dough will melt and your cookies will be misshapen and gooey on the edges.
- Bake cookies for about 12 minutes, until puffy and golden on edges and top center. Remove from oven and let cool on sheets for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
I think you’re going to love these — they’re the best cookies I’ve had in a long time, and so perfect for Fall!
Enjoy!
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