Easy Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle(Egg-free).... Sweet #4.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle.... with peanuts and a touch of coconut. Sorry for the not-so great pictures... and also missing a few of the step-by-step photos. These cookies were made close to midnight one day, while waiting up for my husband who got called out on a job repair for work. As I was waiting up for him, I remembered a recipe for a cookie brittle I had seen on various sites... 

The idea of a cookie "brittle" had sounded interesting to me. Seemed everyone was raving about it. So on the spur of the moment, I decided to go down in the kitchen and bake a batch of cookie brittle... with ingredients I had in the house. Before I knew it, time had flown by and my husband was in the kitchen... helping with clean up:).

This cookie brittle is quite adaptable....  possibility for  lots of flavor combinations. Children can easily help make a batch, and even choose the ingredients to make their own special cookie brittle. And because it's egg-free, you don't have to worry about the kids eating a bit of the raw cookie dough while helping...  

The cookie bakes up to be nice and crisp... therefore the brittle part. You can choose to break up the cookie in irregular sizes, or you can just as well use a pizza cutter/knife to cut neat square shapes after you remove the cookie from the oven. These cookies are also perfect for gift giving. So here's #4 in the"sweet" series. Hope you enjoy.    

Note: If using unsalted nuts, add 1/2 tsp -1 tsp of salt to cookie dough. Opt to make these cookies your own, by substituting the peanuts with any nuts of choice (cashews, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts... or even a mixture). Exchange the chocolate chips with other flavored chips you may like. Use all brown sugar or all white sugar, depending on what you prefer. And add other extracts if you like. Oh, and if you don't care for the cinnamon, skip it...

You will need:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips*

1 cup chopped salted peanuts

1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Additional melted chocolate to drizzle on top of cookies, optional *

*you can use 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips from the cookie dough(so use 1 cup total chocolate chips for the dough) to melt and drizzle cookie brittle. I chose to just put the extra 1/2 cup chocolate chips inside the cookie dough... and skipped the chocolate drizzle. 

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 350° F.

1. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl. Gradually beat in flour. Stir in chocolate chips, coconut and peanuts.... or any other ingredients you like. Press into a parchment lined 10x17( or a even a 15 x 10-inch) jelly-roll pan, or roll between 2 sheets of parchment paper... this was much better for me. You want the dough to be as thick, as maybe a chocolate chip, and fit the entire 15x10 pan . I used a 10x17 so it was almost to the edge. The dough is quite crumbly, but it will bake up fine.

2. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and set. Cool until just slightly warm. Drizzle with chocolate, if using and allow chocolate to set. 

3. Break cookie into irregular pieces.