Baby Ruth Cookies

Baby Ruth Cookies is an old fashioned cookie recipe from the 1920, made by adding chopped Candy Bars made of caramel, chocolate, and roasted peanuts to the batter.

I acquired this Baby Ruth Cookies recipe in the late 1940s or early 1950s from the wrapper on a Baby Ruth Candy Bar.

The nougat center, caramel, chocolate and roasted peanuts of the candy makes this a chewy, delicious cookie that is not found in stores.

NOTE: Love chocolate? See the suggestion below to add semi-sweet chocolate curls* to the cookie dough of this tasty original recipe for a delicious variety.

Baby Ruth Cookies Recipe

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
  
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
  
• 1 egg
  
  
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
  
• 1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour or all-purpose flour made from 100% soft winter wheat
  
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
  
• 2 (2.1 oz. size**) Baby Ruth Candy Bars, chopped in pieces about the size of Chocolate Chip Morsels.

Cream butter.

Add sugar slowly and cream until light and fluffy.

Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until very light.

Sift together sifted flour, baking soda and salt.

Fold into creamed mixture and mix just until all flour is incorporated well.

Gently, fold in chopped candy pieces.

Chill dough in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.

Drop by a teaspoonful of dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

I like to line my cookie sheets with non-greased parchment paper instead of an unlined pan because the dough doesn't spread as much.

Also, I can slide the parchment paper off onto a cooling rack without removing the cookies.

Bake in a preheated oven 325 F. for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned around the edges and center is barely done.

Remove cookies from oven and let set 2-3 minutes.

Carefully lift cookies with a spatula and place on wire rack to cool.

**I could not find Baby Ruth Bars with this exact weight listed on the package.

The package I used was a "twin bar" listing the weight as 3.7 total ounces on the label.

They weighted a little more when weighed on my commercial scales and enough for this recipe.

Makes 3 dozen small cookies.

Chocolate Baby Ruth Cookie

Add chocolate curls to the dough of this recipe for a little more chocolate flavor and variety.

• 1 oz. Baker's Semi-Sweet German Chocolate
  
  

*To make chocolate curls, use a potato peeler or similar tool to peel the chocolate from a room temperature chocolate bar.

Peel the end of the bar into curls. If the curls break or just don't curl and crumble instead, that is OK.

The reason for peeling the chocolate is to get thin pieces of chocolate for the batter so it will melt sufficiently.

Mix the chocolate in with the the cut up pieces of Baby Ruth Candy and fold into the cookie dough.

Cookie Baking Tips

If using only one pan to bake cookies, cool pan for second batch by running cold tap water over the bottom.

Cookie sheets or pans should always be cool when placing the unbaked dough on them.

To keep these Baby Ruth Cookies soft and fresh, store in an airtight, preferably tin, container.

A Little History For You

The Baby Ruth Candy Bar was introduced in 1921 by the Curtis Candy Company that had been started in Chicago by Otto Schnering with the candy named "Kandy Kake".

He had changed the first confection into a log-shape and renamed it.

Schnering's official explanation on renaming the candy was that he named it after the former President Grover Cleveland's first-born daughter Ruth, who was referred to as "Baby Ruth".

Part of that official claim to naming it was that "Baby Ruth" had visited the Curtiss Company plant several years prior, influencing him to select her name.

Coincidentally, Babe Ruth, the legendary baseball player had become the most famous person in America around that time.

We know, according to historians, that Ruth Cleveland didn't visit the Curtis Candy Company at all, because she died in 1904 at age 12, before the Curtis Candy Company was born in 1916.

That was 17 years prior to renaming the candy.

Many people think the most likely theory is that the Candy Company fabricated the story about the name selection to avoid paying Babe Ruth royalties on skyrocketing candy sales. Who knows?

What do you think?

Related Pages

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies

Return to Cookie Recipes


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