Chocolate Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies

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Hello Daring Bakers!

WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE: My knockout Chocolate Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies are the daring deal with that any peanut butter chocolate fan will completely adore! Fast, straightforward to make (no machine wanted), and tremendous satisfying!

• Heavenly cocoa cookie: Bittersweet chocolate, cocoa powder, darkish brown sugar, and molasses deliver the flavour.
• Creamy, thick filling: Straight-up luscious peanut butter is all you want.
• Accomplished in 40 minutes: Fortunately, you don’t have to attend lengthy to dig into these peanut butter stuffed cookies.
• Decadent: No wimpy cookies right here! These beneficiant, pillowy treats are excessive in the easiest way.
• Prepare for compliments! Half brownie, half cookie, half peanut butter truffle, and pure delight.

It’s a sensible thought to have a go-to listing of irresistible, super-fast cookies. You possibly can combine these recipes up in minutes, they bake in a flash, they usually style so a lot better than store-bought. You’ll love my Greatest Ever Oatmeal Cookies, 3 Ingredient Nutella Cookies, Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies, Excellent Funfetti Cookies, and Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Most of us adore something with chocolate and peanut butter, however right here is my baker’s secret about how one can elevate these cookies much more. Make your chocolate dough upfront and “age” it within the fridge for a number of days (I age my dough for 4 or 5 days) earlier than baking. This growing older course of offers the flavors time to develop to their full potential. Moreover, throughout this resting interval, the gluten relaxes, which makes the cookies extra tender.

Desk of Contents

What are Chocolate Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies

• Chocolate Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies are darkish chocolate cookies stuffed with peanut butter.
  • Taste: Intense cocoa and mellow peanut butter
  • Major substances: Bittersweet chocolate, unsweetened cocoa powder, darkish brown sugar, molasses, peanut butter
  • Texture:  Tender cookie with barely crispy edges, comfortable and creamy middle
  • Nice for: Dessert, snacks, fall events
• The method of making peanut butter was patented by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the well being reformer who, alongside together with his brother, additionally invented Corn Flakes! Peanut butter, identified on the time as peanut paste, was developed as a high-protein meals for vegetarians and folks with chewing difficulties.

Key Components and Substitutes

For the Chocolate Cookie Dough

Bittersweet chocolate

• Bittersweet chocolate has 63–72% cocoa solids, giving it a bolder, extra pronounced cocoa taste. It’s darker and extra intense than semisweet chocolate, and has the best degree of sweetness.
• Discover out extra about chocolate in my Final Information to the Totally different Kinds of Chocolate.

Butter

• Butter gives moisture, and fats that makes the cookies tender and comfortable, and contributes to a satisfying chew.
• Importantly, butter offers these chocolate cookies a wealthy, creamy taste.
• It’s necessary to have your butter at room temperature so you may cream it appropriately. Listed here are the perfect strategies for softening butter.
• Substitute: You should use an equal quantity of stable coconut oil instead of the butter.
  • Cookies made with stable coconut oil might unfold greater than cookies made with butter. So, you employ stable coconut oil, I like to recommend chilling the cookie dough for at the least one hour earlier than shaping and baking the cookies.

Granulated sugar

• Granulated sugar sweetens the cookies.
• Importantly, as a result of granulated sugar is drier than brown sugar, it helps these stuffed cookies maintain their form.

Darkish brown sugar

• Darkish brown sugar provides moisture, beautiful gooeyness, and provides these cookies a contact of caramel taste.
  Use our Do-it-yourself Brown Sugar Recipe to make your individual!

Molasses

• Molasses enhances the feel by including moisture
• Importantly, strong, barely smoky molasses provides depth of taste to the peanut butter cookies filled with peanut butter and balances out the sweetness.
• Use my recipe to make your individual molasses substitute.
• Substitute: You should use an equal quantity of darkish corn syrup, golden syrup, or honey (which can make the cookies sweeter).

Eggs

• The egg emulsifies the substances right into a cohesive combination.
• Moreover, eggs contribute richness and taste.
• Eggs have to be at room temperature when baking except specified in any other case. Right here’s how one can heat up eggs straight from the fridge.
• Substitute: You should use a flax egg (use 1 tablespoon of floor flaxseed plus 3 tablespoons water per egg, combine, and put aside for five minutes earlier than including to the batter) or a chia seed egg (use 1 tablespoon of chia seeds plus 3 tablespoons of water per egg, combine, and put aside for 5 minutes earlier than including to the batter).

All-purpose flour

• All-purpose flour offers these peanut butter-stuffed cookies sufficient construction to carry their form whereas nonetheless sustaining a comfortable texture.
• Substitute: Use an equal quantity of a gluten-free baking combine, like our Simple Almond Flour Baking Combine or one other gluten free flour.

Unsweetened cocoa powder

• Unsweetened cocoa powder offers the stuffed cookies a satisfying cocoa taste and wealthy coloration.
• Substitute: You should use an equal quantity of Dutch-processed cocoa.

Baking soda

• Baking soda is a leavening agent that makes the cookies lighter and puffier.
• It reacts with acidic substances, equivalent to molasses and darkish brown sugar.
• Learn extra concerning the science behind this course of in Baking Powder vs. Baking Soda When Making Cookies.

Salt

• Salt brings out the flavors of all the substances and accentuates the bittersweet chocolate fantastically.

Milk chocolate

• Chopped milk chocolate provides creamy sweetness and a melty texture distinction to those peanut butter stuffed cookies.
• Substitutes: You should use an equal quantity of milk chocolate chips or mini chips as an alternative of chopped chocolate.

For the Cookie filling

Creamy peanut butter

• Creamy peanut butter gives the filling for these stuffed cookies
• You’ll want to use salted peanut butter, or the cookies might style bland.
• Substitute: If you happen to want, use chunky peanut butter.
  • Instead of the peanut butter, you should use an equal quantity of almond butter.
  • Use an equal quantity of sunflower seed butter for a non-nut choice.

The way to Make Chocolate Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies

To Make the Chocolate Cookie Dough

1. Soften chocolate: In a medium bowl, soften the bittersweet chocolate within the microwave in 30-second increments or over a double boiler for about 2 minutes. Put aside to chill.
2. Cream butter and sugars: In a big mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars along with a whisk by hand till comfortable and lightweight in coloration.

3. Stir in moist substances: Stir the molasses and the cooled chocolate, adopted by the eggs, one by one.

4. Add dry substances: Sift over the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and blend till simply mixed.

5. Fold in chocolate: Lastly, fold within the chopped milk chocolate till evenly distributed. (At this level, you may chill your uncooked dough for as much as 3 days or freeze it as much as two months.)

To Make the Cookies

6. Put together to bake: Preheat the oven fan help to 350°F (180°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and put aside.
7. Portion dough: Scoop the dough into 28 evenly sized parts, roughly 2-tablespoons every, roll into balls and flatten barely.

8. Add filling: Make an indent right into a cookie, and add 1½ teaspoons of peanut butter within the gap.

9. High cookies: Place one other cookie on high and press the perimeters to encase the peanut butter. Flatten to about 2 ½ inches (5 cm) in diameter.

10. End cookies: Repeat till you could have stuffed all the cookies, arranging the cookies at the least 3 inches aside on the cookie sheet.

11. Bake and luxuriate in: Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or till agency on the perimeters and barely set within the center.

FULL (PRINTABLE) RECIPE BELOW! 

Gemma’s Professional Chef Suggestions

• Convection vs. common: If you happen to don’t have a convection oven, bake one sheet at a time at 375°F (180 °C).
• Cautious measuring: When filling the cookies, use not more than 1½ teaspoons of peanut butter, or the cookie might be arduous to shut.
• Extra crunch: For stuffed peanut butter cookies with a bit extra texture, you should use crunchy peanut butter or add a number of chopped, salted peanuts to the filling.
• Filling choices: You should use almond or sunflower seed butter as an alternative of peanut butter. Whichever you select, be sure that it’s salted for the perfect taste and distinction.
• Completion: Earlier than baking, you may add a number of extra chunks of milk chocolate or a number of salted peanuts to the tops of the cookies to offer them a pleasant look.

Make Forward and Storage Directions

• Make-ahead ideas:
  • You can also make the dough 4 to 5 days upfront of baking day.
  • You can even make the dough, assemble the cookies, and freeze them flat on a tray.
    • As soon as frozen, bag them, after which you may bake as many cookies as you need everytime you’d like.
    • Freeze them this manner for as much as two months.
    • When able to bake, defrost them at room temperature for 1 hour.
• The way to retailer leftovers:
  • Retailer in an hermetic container at room temperature for as much as three days.

FAQs

Can I make these peanut butter chocolate cookies with out eggs?

• Sure, you can also make these peanut butter chocolate cookies with out eggs.
• For every egg, substitute with a flax egg (use 1 tablespoon of floor flaxseed plus 3 tablespoons water per egg, combine, and put aside for 5 minutes earlier than including to the batter) or a chia seed egg (use 1 tablespoon of chia seeds plus 3 tablespoons of water per egg, combine, and put aside for 5 minutes earlier than including to the batter).
• For extra egg substitute concepts, take a look at my Information to the Greatest Egg Substitutes in Baking.

Can I make these cookies gluten-free?

• Sure, you can also make these cookies gluten-free.
• Use an equal quantity of gluten-free baking combine, like Simple Almond Flour Baking Combine or one other gluten-free flour, instead of the all-purpose flour.

What are some mix-ins I can use on this cookie recipe?

• So as to add texture and/or a unique taste to the peanut butter filling, you may add chopped peanuts, toffee bits, or crushed pretzels.
• Double down on the chocolate peanut butter theme by mixing mini chocolate chips into the peanut butter.
• Add-ins that can add texture to the dough embody chopped bittersweet chocolate, mini bittersweet chips or cacao nibs, mini white chocolate chips, chopped toasted hazelnuts or walnuts, or chopped candied ginger.
•  Sprinkle the highest of unbaked cookies with chopped nuts, flaky sea salt, or mini peanut butter chips.

What’s the key to creating certain the peanut butter doesn’t leak out of the cookies?

• Kind the chocolate cookie dough evenly across the peanut butter filling, taking care that there aren’t any skinny spots.
• Take care to not overbake the cookies, because the peanut butter might liquify and leak.
• If you happen to’re actually nervous about peanut butter leaking, you may at all times scoop out 1 1/2 teaspoons of peanut butter, type them into balls, and chill them for a few hours earlier than making the cookies.

Extra Chocolate Peanut Butter Recipes