Today is a very special day!! It’s my amazing, wonderful friend Lisa’s birthday! I’ve known Lisa since my sophomore year of college, which doesn’t seem like that long ago, but when I do the math, I realize that it was almost 9 years ago. Yikes. I’m old. But it’s okay because Lisa is older.
I will never forget when I went away to college (I stayed local at community college before transferring to Idaho), I had a hard time being away from friends and family on my birthday, and Lisa always sent me the BEST care packages! This year, I wanted to make her feel extra special, so I sent her a care package that *hopefully* will arrive today with these cookies, and a flashcard timeline of our friendship. Complete with stick figure humans and dogs.
I may or may not have cried for about half of the time it took to put this together. I also cry picking out cards for all occasions. What can I say? We all know I’m an emotional human. Anyway, Lisa’s favorite candy bar is a Take 5. I’d never had one when I met her, but she introduced me, and I was instantly hooked. I haven’t had one in years and years (except for a couple pieces in the cookies I saved for “taste testing”), but I remember loving the combination of creamy chocolate, sweet caramel, peanuts, peanut butter and salty pretzels. It is everything amazing in the world of candy all mixed into one bar!
I knew I wanted a peanut butter cookie base to partner with the Take 5 candy bars, so I went with my favorite peanut butter cookie base, and used White Chocolate Wonderful because Lisa loves it as much as I do. Then, I added white chocolate chips because I knew I wanted a little extra add in.
The result? They were everything I hoped they would be, and the perfect way to send lots of love to one of my favorite people in my life.
Take 5 Cookies
yield 1 1/2 dozen
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 4 oz light cream cheese
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 full size Take 5 candy bars, chopped
- 1/3 cup white chocolate chips
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 large cookie sheets with silpat or parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a large bowl (I used my stand mixer), beat together cream cheese, peanut butter, and sugars until combined. Beat in egg, then vanilla. Gently, fold in chopped Take 5 bars and white chocolate chips. I ended up just using my hands to get everything combined.
- Roll dough into balls just over 1″ and transfer to prepared baking sheet. Bake until edges are golden and cookies are just set, about 12-15 minutes. Do not over bake.
- Let stand for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store completely cooled cookies in a tupperware with the lid sitting on top, but not sealed–these will get mushy if they are in a completely airtight container–for up to one week.
