Chocolate Chip and Toffee Pudding Cookies

In high school and college I was a lifeguard at a community pool during the summers.  A couple of the other girls and I baked treats and brought them up to share with everyone a couple times a week.  One of the cashiers brought chocolate chip pudding cookies a few times and I fell in love with them.  She shared the recipe with me, but since this was more than 10 years ago and it was written on a piece of notebook paper I have lost it.  But thanks to Pinterest I found another recipe for pudding cookies that seems close to the recipe I got from Ashley!  What would we do without the internet?!

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These are thick, chewy and soft chocolate chip cookies, the kind I prefer.  It’s a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, but contains a secret ingredient,  a small package of vanilla pudding mix!  This makes them softer than typical cookies and quite addictive.  I added in some toffee pieces along with the chocolate chips.  The options are endless when it comes to mix-ins though.  You could add any kind of chocolate chip, nuts, caramel bits, crushed up pretzels, etc.

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These are my favorite chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips from Guittard.  They’re bigger than the standard chip, have terrific milk chocolate flavor and melt terrifically in these cookies.  And in your mouth.  I may or may not eat them by the handful straight from the bag on occasion….or daily.

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 Chocolate Chips and Toffee Pudding Cookies

From Life in the Lofthouse

Makes 24-30 cookies depending on their size

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks of butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 small box (3.4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 bag (11 ounces) chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup toffee pieces

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugars until fluffy.
  3. Add in the pudding mix and beat to combine.
  4. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating between additions, followed by the vanilla.
  5. Beat in the flour, baking soda and salt until just combined.  Use a spatula to stir everything together from the bottom of the bowl.
  6. Stir in the chocolate chips and toffee with the spatula.
  7. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Scoop dough by rounded tablespoons onto the sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart, 6-8 cookies per sheet.
  8. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until cookies are slightly browned.
  9. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  Scoop dough onto the other cookie sheet while the one you just used cools off.
  10. Cookies will firm up as they cool, so if they appear under-baked wen you take them out of the oven, don’t worry.