Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Blogging is something I think about often, but rarely while I'm actually doing a project.  In the planning stages I usually think to myself that I should set up the camera and make sure to take lots of pictures, but I almost never actually remember to do it!  So today's post is the recipe for the Peanut Butter Cup Cookies so many of you have asked for, presented without photos.  Enjoy!!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Makes 32 cookies

1 ½ C all purpose flour

½ C unsweetened cocoa powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ C butter, softened

¼ C creamy peanut butter

½ C granulated sugar

½ C packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

¾ C confectioner’s sugar

½ C creamy peanut butter

2 Tbsp granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350*.  In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda and marvel at how pretty the mixture looks with the brown marbled throughout the white; set aside.

In a large bowl combine butter and ¼ C peanut butter.  Beat with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds or until mostly blended.  Add the ½ C granulated sugar and brown sugar.  Beat until well combined, scraping sides of the bowl occasionally, if necessary.  Beat in egg, milk and vanilla until combined.  Add in as much of the flour mixture as you can with the mixer, then add the rest by hand or stir it in with a spoon. 

On a sheet of waxed paper, cookie sheet or counter, roll the dough into a thick log and cut into 32 even pieces (I cut the log into fourths, the cut each slice into 8 even pieces).

In a medium bowl, combine the ¾ C confectioner’s sugar and ½ C peanut butter by hand until it resembles the texture of play-dough.  It will feel like it’s too dry and it’ll never come together, but keep working it and I promise, it’ll happen.  Repeat the rolling and cutting step. 

You should now have 64 globs of dough, 32 dark brown and 32 light brown.  Take a ball of the dark mixture and roll it between your hands, then flatten it into a disc.  Place a piece of the light brown dough in the center of the disc and gather the dark dough up around it, then roll it into a ball. 

The finished dough balls should be placed about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet (no need to grease it).  Using the bottom of a glass, a hamburger press or whatever you have handy, flatten the cookies gently, dipping the glass into the 2 T sugar to coat the cookies and keep the glass from sticking. 

Bake about 8 minutes or until the surface is set and the edges are cracked a bit.  Let the cookies cool on the pan for a minute or two; transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. 

The original recipe said these would last at room temperature for up to 4 days, but honestly, these cookies are such a hit that I’ve never had them last more than 24 hours!  They can be frozen (between layers of waxed paper) for up to three months, though, so you could feasibly make them last longer if you really wanted to.