Peanut butter cup cookies

I guess April must be my own personal cookie baking month or something. So far, of the five recipes I've posted during this month (including this one), four of them have been cookies. Must be a sign that it's been a busy month - cookies are a lot quicker to bake than baking, filling, and icing cupcakes!

This week are peanut butter cup cookies! Imagine a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (one of my favorite candies), except instead of a chocolate coating, it was a chocolate cookie coating. Peanut butter and chocolate are one of my favorite classic combinations, so these cookies were very enjoyable to make!

They actually were a lot simpler to make than they appear. The cookie dough is chocolate-based, with a hint of peanut butter. Most of the peanut butter is in the filling, which is just made up of peanut butter and powdered sugar. I simply wrapped a ball of the dough around a smaller ball of the filling and rolled it up.

I loved that this recipe was very easy to handle - both the dough and the filling are not very sticky at all, which makes it easy to roll and mold. And I didn't even have to wait and chill the dough to make it manageable!

They baked up very nicely as well - ten short minutes of baking and the cookie is soft, but not soggy, while the peanut butter stays inside the cookie and doesn't leak out.

This definitely is one of my favorite recipes to date - a must-repeat in the future!

Peanut butter cup cookies (makes ~24 cookies)
Recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker
Cookies:

• 1½ cups/187 g all-purpose flour
• ½ cup/43 g cocoa powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ cup butter (unsalted, softened)
• ½ cup/100 g white sugar
• ½ cup/100 g dark brown sugar
• ¼ cup/65 g creamy peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla

Filling:

• ¾ cup/195 g creamy peanut butter
• ¾ cup/75 g powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together. 
3. In a separate bowl, cream butter on high speed. Add the white and brown sugars, followed by peanut butter on medium speed until light and fluffy. 
4. Add egg and vanilla and continue to combine.
5. Add flour mixture on low speed until a dough is formed.
6. Mix peanut butter and powdered sugar in a separate bowl for the filling.
7. To form a cookie, take 1½ Tbsp of dough and flatten it into a disc. Take 1 tsp of the filling and place in center of disc. Wrap dough around the filling and roll into a ball to seal. 
8. Place cookies on lined baking sheet and bake for 9-10 minutes. 
9. Let cool and enjoy!