Chocolate Peanut Butter Middles

In my last entry, brazilian shrimp soup, I said that I was very concerned about how my dish was going to turn out. When first I saw this recipe, chocolate peanut butter middle cookies, I knew that it would take a phenomenal mistake on my part for them to not taste delicious. I found this recipe on Jane Maynard's blog This Week for Dinner. Thepioneerwoman.com and bunsinmyoven.com offer their own takes on the recipe. In addition to being a better chef than I am, Jane is also a better photographer. If you want to see some photos of how truly amazing these cookies can look, check out that link. Mine didn't turn out quite as pretty as her's, but they still tasted great.

I have to warn those of you interested in trying this recipe that it is very labor-intensive. This took me longer to prepare than any other cookie recipe I've made. That being said, the final product is well worth the effort.

Below are the original ingredients and directions recommended on other sites. My notes are included in italics.

Ingredients:

For the cookies:
1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
½ cups Cocoa Powder
½ teaspoons Baking Soda
½ cups White Sugar
½ cups Packed Brown Sugar
½ cups Butter
¼ cups Peanut Butter (I used Trader Joe's creamy unsalted peanut butter)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 whole Egg

For the peanut butter filling:
¾ cups Powdered Sugar
¾ cups Peanut Butter


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda.

3. In a large bowl, beat together the sugars, butter, and 1/4 cup of peanut butter until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and egg. Slowly mix in the flour mixture. Set aside. (I found that the best way to mix this was simply to stir it a bit and then knead it together with my hands.)

4. For the peanut butter filling, combine confectioners’ sugar and 3/4 cup peanut butter. Beat together well. (Again, I found the best method for mixing was to stir a bit and then knead it by hand.)

5. Roll filling into 30 small balls. Try to keep the balls all the same size—around 1 inch.

6. For each cookie, use 1 tablespoon of chocolate dough and roll into a ball. It helps to flour your hands first. Squish the ball of chocolate dough flat and place a peanut butter ball in the center. Wrap the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter ball to completely cover. (This was the really challenging part of the recipe. You can put in a lot of effort trying make them look perfect and making sure that absolutely no peanut butter spills out through the cracks, but it really won't affect the taste either way. I put in a lot of frustrating work making sure the first 10 or so I prepared were perfect, but eventually I decided it wasn't worth it. And in the end, the ones with peanut butter peeking out were just as tasty.)

7. Place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Dip the bottom of a glass into white sugar and use the cup to lightly flatten the cookie balls. (I had the same issues with this technique as described on Jane Maynard's blog. I found it was much easier to simply dip the cookie in the sugar and use the glass to smoosh it down.)

8. Bake for 7-9 minutes. When cookies are done, they should be set and slightly cracked. (Be careful not to overcook the cookies. I kept my first batch of cookies in the oven for 10 minutes, because they didn't seem quite set yet. They turned out a little bit dry, though still good. I only kept the second batch in for 8 minutes and they turned out much better.)

Results:
Though they were a lot of work these cookies turned out almost as well as I had hoped. They both looked and tasted delicious. Don't worry too much about making them look perfect. The creamy peanut butter filling goes great with the chocolate cookie outside. Some commenters on other blogs suggested adding a little salt with the sugar on top. I didn't try this, but I'm sure it would have added a nice extra dimension to the flavor.