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We joke about leftover candy the way some people joke about leftover wine. Like, what is that? Buuuut, we do actually happen to have leftover mini Snickers after most holidays. So, what do you do? Make Snickers cookies, of course.

Snickers cookies pack chopped minis and milk chocolate into a lightly peanut buttery cookie. The caramel and nougat melt and get extra chewy and fun. And to top it off, I make these a little larger than usual. More to love! Yay!

Snickers cookies on a cooling rack on a wooden cutting board on a white counter

What Goes into Snickers Cookies

Because we tend to have loads of mini Snickers after Halloween and Easter, that’s what I like to put into my cookies. It takes about 14 of the minis, but if you’re using a whole candy bar, I’d use 2. If you’re using fun size, I’d use 7 or 8. And as with most mix ins, this is a recommendation. You can use as much as you want and really load these up.

I also add in milk chocolate because, well, why not? We had a bar of the good stuff on hand, so I chopped it up and tossed it in. That turned out to be an awesome batch, so we’re keeping it. You could use chips if you would prefer, or you can skip it. Again, mix-in quantities are more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.

As for the dough, I wanted to amplify the peanut flavor for the candy, so we’re using a healthy amount of peanut butter, too. This also helps the texture of the cookies as it increases the fat content and give it more fudginess.

Bite taken out of half of Snickers cookie with gooey chocolate showing

Making Snickers Cookie Dough

Making the cookie dough for these cookies is super easy. The hardest part is not eating it with a spoon before you can bake it. BTW, I’m supposed to tell you not to eat raw cookie dough, okay? There are raw eggs and raw flour, and both can contain salmonella bacteria which will give you massive tummy troubles. So, you now have that information to do with what you will.

We start with peanut butter, room temperature butter, and brown sugar. Room temperature butter is easier to cream, but if you’ve forgotten, you can pop it in the microwave for 20-ish seconds. Check it with your fingers. It should be, well, room temperature and soft enough that you can leave a finger divot without much effort.

Once you’ve gotten your first three ingredients nice and creamy, add in an egg. It’s going to start looking velvety. Add in vanilla and milk, and go ahead and toss the salt in now. At this point, it’s looking luscious and ribbony.

Load in the flour, baking soda, and your Snickers and milk chocolate all at once. Mix until it’s all combined. You will want to scrape down the sides and give it another mix around just to make sure it’s all in there.

Pop the dough in the fridge for an hour.

9 Snickers Cookies in a 3x3 pattern with bits of mini Snickers bars in between

Why Do You Always Chill Cookie Dough?

I can feel your frustration. Why are we always having to chill the cookie dough? UGGGGHHHHH! Okay, so you know how you had to warm up your butter? We need it to go back to cold. Obviously butter is easier to cream when it’s warm, but if you go from warm to hot, it just melts before the rest of the ingredients can set. So, your cookies spread out really thin. It’s not fun.

Chill your dough for an hour, and it’s still soft and easy to scoop. However, the butter has now firmed up just enough that your cookies won’t overspread. They are going to melt and spread a little, but they do so just enough that they are still thick and fudgy. And that is the goal.

Stack of Snickers cookies with chopped mini Snickers for decoration on a white counter

If You Don’t Like Snickers…

Honestly, if you’ve clicked on this recipe and read this far into the blog post but you’re not a big fan of Snickers, I’m wondering about you… but I’m not judging. They do look really good, right? The good news is you can substitute in Reese’s Cups, Peanut Butter M&Ms, or chopped up Mr. Goodbars. It helps if the candy is peanut butter and chocolate flavored. I personally think the caramel in Snickers is important, but you know, do you.

And, if you’re allergic to peanuts but you’re here looking for a glimmer of hope, I’d recommend swapping Sunbutter for the peanut butter (just be warned that your cookies might turn out green; I have a whole post on it here).

For the Snickers, sub in whatever your favorite nut-free candy is (like if you feel safe using Milky Way, for example). You could even make your own nut-free Snickers with this awesome recipe from Chelsey Amer Nutrition.

Now, obviously, I love to tell you about all the substitutions you can make to customize things to your own needs. This, however, has not been tested, so you’ll be going into it at your own risk. Feel free to come back and comment if you tried something weird and it worked or failed. I’d love to hear your story.

stacks of Snickers cookies with bits of chopped Snickers bars

Tools for Making Snickers Cookies

And as always, I love to link a few of the tools that I used to help me make my recipe. If you want to use what I do, I really appreciate that!

Norpro Sheet Pan
Silicone Baking Mat
#20 Cookie Scoop (this is usually what I use for cupcakes, but I wanted some big cookies)
Cooling Rack
Kitchenaid Stand Mixer (I really love this thing… I use it for almost everything)

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