Let me start off by saying that I can take no credit for this recipe whatsoever.  I found this recipe on Sally’sBakingAddiction.com and as far as I’m concerned Sally is a cookie baking genius.  Seriously.  I’ve never been a huge  peanut butter cookie fan because I’m so partial to chocolate.  Put the two together though, and I’m very, very happy.  Mike loves just plain old peanut butter cookies, but I like them spruced up a bit so it’s a great thing Sally came to our rescue.  This cookie dough can be left as is to make your basic peanut butter cookie, or you can stuff the dough with a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup and drizzle chocolate on top to make these cookies ridiculously scrumptious.  And really, I mean, if you’re going to make peanut butter cookies why not go all the way?  As Tom Hanks says on a League of Their Own, “Anything worth doin’ is worth doin’ right.”

The only thing I’ve changed from Sally’s original recipe is that I’ve doubled hers and used dark chocolate Reese’s cups instead of the typical milk chocolate ones.  Because my husband tends to attack cookie dough well before I’m able to make actual cookies out of it, doubling her recipe was a must.  For the explanation of the dark chocolate, well, even my three and five year old ask to clarify whether they are about to eat milk chocolate or dark chocolate because they prefer the latter.  Sally is also amazing with her ability to decorate cookies just so, and as for me, I care more about gettin’ ’em done so we can eat ’em.  She uses a neat little squeeze bottle to carefully drizzle peanut butter chocolate on top of her cookies while I just use plain ol’ chocolate and a fork. 🙂

I hope you enjoy these as much as we do.  Mike took some to work and they were “a humongous hit.”  Apparently I became a rockstar.  Thanks Sally!

Ingredients

• 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup brown sugar (light or brown)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 and 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 36 Reese’s Dark Chocolate Miniature Peanut Butter Cups, unwrapped (1 bag should do ya)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (for the drizzled chocolate topping)

Directions

1. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and mix well with a fork.
2. In a large bowl beat the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together on medium speed until combined. Beat in the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla first on low and then turn the mixer to high until it’s light in color and smooth.
3. Pour in the dry ingredients a third at a time with the mixer on low.  Mix until combined and a dough is formed.
4. Cover tightly and chill the cookie dough for at least 1 hour (or up to 3 days). Chilling is mandatory.
5. Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Take 1 Tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball. Take another 1 Tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball.  (I really do measure using a tablespoon because it’s easy to let these cookies get too big.  Even slightly less than a tablespoon for each ball is ideal.)  Stick a peanut butter cup into one ball, kind of like a “cradle”.  Top the peanut butter cup with other cookie dough ball and pinch down the sides so that the peanut butter cup is securely stuffed inside.  Place the dough on the cookie sheet and press down gently (you don’t want to smash the peanut butter cup) so that it has more of a cylinder shape with a flat top than being shaped like a perfect sphere.  Repeat with the rest of the dough and 36 peanut butter cups if you really want them all immediately.  (I never have patience to roll make more than ten cookies at a time so I save the dough to make fresh cookies each time.)
6. Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes or until very lightly browned on the sides.  Take the cookie sheet out, push down slightly on each cookie with a fork, flattening down each cookie slightly.  Return to the oven for an additional minute or minute and a half until the cookies are golden brown.  These are large cookies so they need to cool on the cookie sheet for at least 10 minutes to help finish the cooking process.
7. Melt 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips by putting them in the microwave on high for 30 seconds at a time.  Continue until the chocolate is smooth and drips easily off the fork.  Drizzle each cookie with chocolate and allow the cool.  The chocolate will harden so that the cookies can be sealed in a ziplock bag or airtight container without getting chocolate everywhere. 🙂