Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies

Before the recipe, here is another singer/songwriter/guitar player you might not know-- Jacqueline du Plessis. I like her beautiful voice and talent for writing sweet songs.

"Jacqueline was born and raised in South Africa, spending most of her young life in the beautiful city of Cape Town. She plays guitar, sings and continues to aspire to have a CD of here own songs. She has begun collaberating with other artists for future projects. She currently attends Brigham Young University studying Psychology!"



I finished my finals and have a week and a couple of days before my next semester starts! I can breathe!! For a week anyway. I'll take it. Let's see how much I can get done in that short time.

I love chocolate and peanut butter together so when I saw this recipe at Deer Lake Cookie Recipes, I copied it and I recently tried it out. (It was funny to me that the site says "All your favorite healthy homemade cookies", but I don't consider these healthy.)

I tasted them when they were fresh out of the oven and I was a bit disappointed. They were a little dry to me. But everyone else who tried them, loved them. I got several rave reviews. I did one thing wrong. I made the peanut butter dough into balls one at a time and then wrapped each one in some chocolate dough without separating the chocolate dough into the 32 cookies. So I had extra chocolate dough left over at the end that should have been on the cookies, giving them a little more chocolate on each cookie. So yours will probably have more chocolate than mine did.

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies

1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. special dark cocoa powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
1/4 c. chunky peanut butter
1 egg
1 T. milk
1 T. vanilla

Peanut Butter Filling
3/4 c. sifted powdered sugar
1/2 c. chunky peanut butter
2 T. granulated sugar
Preheat oven to 350°.

Sift together the flour, special dark cocoa powder and baking soda in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl cream together the butter, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar and 1/4 cup of chunky peanut butter until well combined. Add in the egg, milk and vanilla. Beat well. Gently mixing in the flour mixture about 1/3 at a time until fully incorporated. Divide dough into 32 portions.

For the filling, combine the confectioners sugar and 1/2 cup peanut butter in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Form peanut butter filling into 32 balls. Wrap each peanut butter ball completely with the chocolate dough. Roll dough into a ball. Place balls on a parchment lined baking sheet. Lightly flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in 2 tablespoons granulated sugar.

Bake cookies for about 8 minutes or until the surface begins to slightly crack. Let cool for 1 minute on the sheet. Transfer to wire racks and cool completely.