Peanut-butter-filled Chocolate Cookies

I haven’t made these for a while because although I love chocolate and I like peanut butter and I thoroughly approve of many, many desserts that combine the two, for some reason I have never much cared for chocolate peanut butter cookies. On the other hand, these cookies are pretty, and a lot of other people do like them, and this season I seem to be kind of into making cookies I haven’t made every single year for the past ten years. So I got out this recipe. And, actually, I like them better than I remembered, so maybe my tastes have changed.

So, forthwith:

Peanut-butter-filled Chocolate Cookies

½ C. butter
½ C. sugar
½ C. brown sugar
¼ C. creamy peanut butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ C. flour
1/3 C. baking cocoa
½ tsp baking soda

¾ C. creamy peanut butter
¾ C. powdered sugar

Combine the butter, sugars, and ¼ C. peanut butter. Beat until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, and baking soda and add to the creamed mixture. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to proceed, but the dough is easy to work with and doesn’t need to be chilled if you’re ready right away.

Combine the ¾ C. peanut butter with the powdered sugar until smooth. Kneading with your hands is by far the easiest way to make a smooth dough of the peanut butter and powdered sugar. Obviously there is no need to refrigerate this if you want to hold it for a couple of hours or a couple of days. I mean, you don’t refrigerate either powdered sugar or peanut butter, after all. Just put it in a container and leave it at room temp till you get around to baking the cookies.

Okay, now the recipe says to divide the cookie dough and filling into 24 pieces each, and that is fine, but I made 48 cookies because I think cookies that are going into a large assortment for Christmas should be small. Divide up the two doughs however you like and roll each portion into a smooth ball.

Flatten each cookie dough ball, place a filling ball on it, and wrap the filling up in the cookie dough. The cookie dough is pretty easy to work with, so this is a bit tedious but not difficult. Roll each filled cookie into a smooth ball again and place on cookie sheets.

I found that I had a bit more filling than I needed, so I can tell you that the extra filling is actually pretty tasty eaten as a candy.

When you have a sheet filled, take a small glass or jar, moisten the bottom of it, dip it in sugar, and flatten each cookie slightly. Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes, until the cookies look done and are starting to crack on the top. Cool slightly on the baking sheets and remove to racks to cool completely.

The first time I made these, years and years ago, it was for a potluck and two different people asked me how I got the filling into the cookies. Well, this is how, and these cookies are indeed quite suitable for potlucks or other special occasions. You should probably tag them, though, so people know there is peanut butter in them, just in case someone is allergic.

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