peanut butter cup cookies

This weekend I did a ton of baking! I made cracker candy again (this year with a new flavor: white Chocolate with lime zest and salt!), lemon ricotta cookies and these babies: peanut butter cup cookies.

Plate of Peanut Butter Cup Cookies | This Tasty Life - http://food.theplainjane.com

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies Closeup | This Tasty Life - http://food.theplainjane.com

They might be my new favorite cookie. They have peanut butter cookies WITH a Reese’s mini peanut butter cup INSIDE. This is magic, I tell you.

Inside of the Peanut Butter Cup Cookies | This Tasty Life - http://food.theplainjane.com

I like these more than peanut butter blossoms and plain old peanut butter cookies. Having that extra bit of chocolate/peanut butter in the middle is almost inspiring.

Like, inspiring me to make more of these cookies. Yum.

Baking the peanut butter cup cookies in a muffin pan | This Tasty Life - http://food.theplainjane.com

Slightly melted Peanut Butter Cup Cookies | This Tasty Life - http://food.theplainjane.com

I looked at a few recipes before embarking on my journey to make these and most used a mini muffin pan. I had lent my mini muffin pan out to Jake’s mom though so all I had were the big tins. And actually, I enjoyed the cookies this way. They’re a little flatter than other one I’ve seen but I like that. They look more like extra thick cookies this way and still stay a bit soft when you bite into one.


Peanut Butter Cup Cookies | This Tasty Life - http://food.theplainjane.com

These are crazy good and crazy addictive. I’m a little sad I only made one batch. But now I know: make at least two batches next time!

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and all that jazz!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Print
Ingredients
  1. 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  2. 1/2 teaspoon salt
  3. 1 teaspoon baking soda
  4. 1/2 cup butter, softened
  5. 1/2 cup white sugar
  6. 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  7. 1/2 cup peanut butter
  8. 1 egg, beaten
  9. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  10. 2 tablespoons milk (I used evaporated because that's what I had on hand)
  11. 30 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Freeze peanut butter cups. This makes it easier to insert the peanut butter cups without them melting all over you.
  3. In a bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking soda. Mix. Set aside.
  4. In a stand mixer, add butter, the two sugars and the peanut butter. Beat together on medium speed for 3-4 minutes, until it looks fluffy and soft.
  5. Add egg, vanilla and milk. Mix to combine. Add the flour mixture to the batch and mix until the flour is totally incorporated into the batter.
  6. Using a medium sized cookie scoop, grab out a scoop of dough. Level off with a knife and pop the scoop into a regular sized muffin pan. Repeat until pan is full.
  7. Bake for about 11 minutes, until the cookies start to look golden brown.
  8. While cookies are baking, unwrap the peanut butter cups.
  9. Remove from heat. Let the cookies cool slightly for about 2 minutes. Insert a peanut butter cup into the center of the cookies, pressing down until they are fully surrounded by the cookie and level with the top. Repeat with all cookies.
  10. Put any leftover chocolates back into the fridge while you finish the rest of the batch.
  11. Let cookies cool and then devour.
Notes
  1. Yields 30 cookies.
Adapted from AllRecipes
Adapted from AllRecipes
This Tasty Life http://food.theplainjane.com/

8 thoughts on “peanut butter cup cookies

  1. Nice trick about freezing the peanut butter cups beforehand to avoid melting. I’ve made peanut butter cups from scratch but your method looks easier. Forget the pumpkin pie during the holidays- I’ll take your cookies instead!

    1. Hi Fran – Thank you! Yeah, I suppose I could have made PB cups from scratch, too, but that was too much work haha. You could really cheat with store bought cookie dough but I think homemade cookie dough always tastes better. Thanks for your comment!

  2. I was wondering how the mini PB cups weren’t melting during the baking process! Freezing them is such a great idea. This recipe looks super easy (I might even look for other mini chocolate candies to use !). It’s funny b/c I don’t think I’ve seen evaporated milk in ages – do you have those on hand for baking recipes?

    1. Hi Faye – You put the PB cup in after they come out of the oven. They might totally melt on you if you put them in room temperature. They started melting even when frozen but only a tiny bit. You could totally be a “cheater” and use already made peanut butter dough! I had evaporated milk on hand because I had tried using it in this “cracker candy” stuff I make with saltines (you make a little caramel sauce and I was adding the milk to that). We usually have a can or two hiding in our pantry.

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