Baby Ruth Cookies are a lost classic but they need to be brought back into the mainstream since they are the most unique circle of yummy I have tasted in a long time. This is a simple white sugar drop cookie with chopped Baby Ruth candy bars stirred into the dough. The candy bar melts as the cookie bakes leaving behind pools of Baby Ruth chocolate flavored nougat, caramel, and peanuts. They are true classics that need to make a comeback.
The original recipe appears to be a product recipe. That is, the Curtiss Candy Company developed the cookie recipe to promote the sales of Baby Ruth Candy Bars. These ads flooded newspapers and magazines beginning in the late 1930s. Wartime ads from the 1940s included a serviceman eagerly receiving a box of cookies and children hoping Mom will bake. One ad featured a pop cultural reference to the Dionne Quintuplets, the first surviving set of quints born in 1934.
Baby Ruth cookies remained popular through the 1950s and then waned in the 1960s when the recipe was no longer printed on the wrapper and ads were no longer filling magazines and newspapers. They appeared for a short time in the late 1970s only to fade into oblivion until now. Now is the time for these unique circles of yummy to make a comeback.
Baby Ruth Cookies
1⅓ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
1 large egg, slightly beaten
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2.1.ounch each Baby Ruth candy bars, chopped
Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium sized bowl and set aside.
Beat the butter and sugar mixture in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed until light and creamy.
Add egg and vanilla and mix on medium speed 30 seconds.
Add flour mixture and beat on slow speed just until combined.
Take bowl off of mixer stand and gently stir in chopped Baby Ruth candy bars just until well mixed. Wrap cookie dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour to allow the butter to harden and the flavors to develop.
Thirty minutes before baking cookies adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking mats.
Drop chilled dough by rounded tablespoons from a medium cookie scoop onto parchment paper or silicon mat lined cookie sheets. Return remaining dough to the refrigerator while cookies bake.
Bake cookies for 8 -10 minutes or until light golden brown,
rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking. Set the baking sheet on wire racks for 2-3 minutes before gently lifting cookies off pan and onto wire racks to continue cooling. Let baking sheets cool completely before repeating the process with the remaining dough.
Yield: 2 dozen