Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I have made quite a few cookies in my lifetime, and a few different varieties of chocolate peanut butter cookies no less, but when I saw the pictures for this particular variety I could not get them out of my head. For at least a week, I would think about them anytime I thought about what I should make for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or when I thought about how I could otherwise occupy my time when I was bored. I finally gave in last night and baked them for our movie night treat.

I think that because it was the first time that I made them they were a bit more time consuming than if I had just made any of my regular standby cookie recipes. One batch only made 18 which was a good and a bad thing. Good in that you don't have a lot of extra cookies hanging around and they end up being pretty good size; bad in that it takes a bit of time to only get 18 cookies out of the process.

One tip that I have is please, please, please, use fresh peanut butter. We use Adam's natural peanut butter for everything, but since the recipe called for Skippy or "kids" peanut butter I found that I had some hanging around in the cupboard so I used that. Probably not a good idea to use peanut butter that is a few years old. Probably not a great idea to use peanut butter that is not supposed to separate but it did separate and you just stirred it back together. Probably not the best idea to use peanut butter that has an oily odor to it because it has separated. Probably a bad idea when the peanut butter makes you think about how long it takes peanut butter to go rancid. I think you get the idea; probably not a good one. Surprisingly the cookies did not taste too bad even with the old peanut butter, so I know they will be positively yummy the next time I make them with fresh, creamy peanut butter.

I followed the ingredient list exactly. The only change I made in the process was to roll out all 18 peanut butter balls first to make sure I had 18 and that they were all about the same size; then I did the same with the larger balls of chocolate dough. I didn't want to get to the end of wrapping them up only to realize that I was a few short for some reason. Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Source: 99% Cacao Dark Chocolate

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup "kids" peanut butter (like Skippy or Jif)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
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1/2 cup "kids" peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar



Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, and baking soda - blend it well; set aside. In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, brown sugar, butter, and 1/4 cup peanut butter until it is light, fluffy, and well combined. Add the vanilla and egg; beat well.


In a medium bowl, combine the 1/2 cup peanut butter and powdered sugar until completely combined. Roll the filling into 18 one-inch balls; set aside.

Stir the flour/cocoa mixture into the large bowl containing the creamed butter/sugars mixture until the ingredients are blended together.

Take a heaping tablespoon of chocolate dough (about the size of a ping pong ball) and roll it into a ball. (I would recommend you do this for all 18 cookies so you know you have enough dough.) Then use your hand to flatten the chocolate ball; place a peanut butter ball onto the middle; fold and shape the dough to entirely encase the peanut butter ball. Roll in your hands to make a smooth ball. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet (or you can cover with parchment paper).

Use the bottom of a drinking glass (or some other smooth glass object) to flatten the cookie balls to approximately 1/4- inch thick. Sprinkle granulated sugar over the top of the cookies - fairly liberally or the sugar will disappear when baked.

Bake for 7 to 9 minutes, or until the cookies are barely set and slightly cracked; they should still be soft. Do not overbake them or they will be dry. Let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before transfering to a cooling rack.