Magic Peanut Butter Middles Cookies

Submitted by beckas

"This recipe was in a magazine clipping years ago. I haven't tried these cookies but they sound good."

 

• Ready In: 54mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Yields: 30 cookies
• Serves: 30

ingredients

• 1 1⁄2 cups flour
• 1⁄2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 1⁄2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1⁄2 cup butter or 1/2 cup margarine
• 1⁄4 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg

• Filling

• 3⁄4 cup peanut butter
• 3⁄4 cup powdered sugar

directions

1. In a small bowl, combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda.
2. In a large bowl, beat sugar, brown sugar, and butter until well blended.
3. Blend in 1/4 cup peanut butter to mixture. Add vanilla and egg, beat well.
4. Add flour mixture until blended. Set aside.
5. In a small bowl, combine filling ingredients, blending well.
6. Roll filling into 30 one inch balls.
7. For each cookie, with floured hands shape 1 tbs dough around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely.
8. Place cookies 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
9. Flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.
10. Bake at 375 degrees for 7 to 9 minutes or until set and slightly cracked.
11. Cool on wire racks.

Reviews

[MICHELLE burgard]

WOW!!!!The chocolate outside is great tasting but as soon as you hit the peanut butter layer, its pure heaven. My new favorite cookies by far.

 

[Kathy]

UPDATE: Made these cookies a second time, and I'm upping my review from 4 stars to 5 stars. MARCH 13, 2011: A really good cookie! They look like plain chocolate cookies until you break one open. I first found this recipe on MyRecipes.com and it was called Magic in the Middles. A nice but slightly vague name, and I like your version better -- it's more indicative of what's in the cookie. I used creamy peanut butter, unsalted butter, and 1/4 tsp. salt in the dough. Also, to compensate for high altitude (6500 feet), I added an extra spoonful of flour. After forming the balls, rather than dipping a glass in sugar and flattening the cookie, it's much easier to take the ball of dough and dip the top in sugar, then flatten slightly (flatten to 1/2 inch high) with a glass. I was a bit worried about making sure there were no cracks in the cookies before they went into the oven -- wasn't sure if the filling would leak out. That was not an issue, and a few tiny cracks are okay. I baked my cookies 7 minutes and that was plenty of time. Definitely worth the time spend rolling the peanut butter centers and covering them with dough.

 

[PSU Lioness]

I saw this recipe on a Food.com Facebook post as a Christmas cookie suggestion and decided to give it a shot and I'm glad I did! I doubled the recipe and wound up getting 72 cookies out of it. I also had a little bit of difficultly figuring out how to get the dough to wrap around the peanut butter balls. I wound up putting the peanut butter balls in the freezer to firm them up and I added a splash of milk to the outside batter since it seemed a little crumbly and it worked like a charm! I also had trouble finding a jar that had nothing on the bottom so I didn't have imprints so I wound up using one of our drinking glasses. I agree with *Kathy* in saying that it's much easier to dip them in sugar and then press them out so the sugar stays on the cookie. I baked them for 10 minutes per tray and they came out perfect. I personally wouldn't change a thing on the ingredients because they sweet inside seems to balance well with the outside. Thank you for posting! This will definitely be added to the yearly Christmas cookie list.

 

[Whocooked]

Good cookie! If you like to bake, they do take a bit of work. Delicous, and definately on the Christmas cookie list.<br/>Make sure the peanut butter balls are 1"or just under. And break the 1tblsp of cookie in 1/2 to "wrap" around the PB.

 

[subaruthie]

We've been looking for something like this!!! They taste great, and everyone loves the surprise inside. I used Ener-G egg replacement powder mixed with water instead of the egg, due to family food allergies. I suggest dividing both the dough and filling into the same number of parts before starting assembly (a pastry mat works great!).