Magic Peanut Butter Middles! Oh yeah!!

Cocoa, you have done it again! This woman over at Chocolate on My Cranium is AMAZING! She posted this post regarding these cookies that she made. OH MY WORD!! I did not feel like cooking yesterday with all the work going on in the house and all. I took yesterday off sort of!! We have huge renovations being done for two weeks now. I've never experienced this! Anyhow, the kids were really tired as this was their first week back after three weeks off and we were going to bed VERY late and I knew they would be tired and difficult. A friend needed me to take her daughter for her so we did and we had pizza delivered so I felt guilty that I did not make dinner and took the opportunity to make these WONDERFUL cookies!!

Magic Peanut Butter Middles

Chocolate Cookie Dough:

3 cups flour

1 cup cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

Peanut Butter Filling:

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

For the chocolate cookie dough, sift together flour, cocoa and baking soda. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream sugars with butter and peanut butter. Add vanilla and eggs. Beat well. Slowly add sifted dry ingredients until well incorporated. For peanut butter filling, in another bowl, beat together peanut butter and powdered sugar. Divide the chocolate cookie dough and the peanut butter filling into 60 portions each. Roll each portion into a ball. For each cookie, flatten a chocolate ball, and place a peanut butter ball in the middle. Bring up chocolate dough and surround peanut butter filling. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and flatten with a glass dipped in sugar or like Cocoa and I do, use your fingers! Bake at 375*F for 7 minutes and done!

The flour, cocoa and baking soda sifted together and whisked. I learned recently that just because I sift dry ingredients together doesn't mean that they are mixed, so a whisk is brought in for the job.

I don't know why this scene makes me so happy! Here are the sugars, butter and peanut butter.

Beating the sugars and butter and peanut butter.

The vanilla and eggs have been added and the mixing has begun. Is it time to dip yet? Yes it is!

Now the flour mixture is being added slowly. It got soooo thick towards the end and my little hand mixer was HOT!!

Over in another bowl, the peanut butter and powdered sugar are being mixed by hand. This is the filling.

Roll the two doughs into balls. The chocolate balls should be larger than the PB balls. See Ali's birthday plate holding the chocolate balls?

Now you flatten a chocolate ball and place the peanut butter ball in the middle and carefully bring up the edges and surround the peanut butter. You have to work a lot with your hands. We make something similar with a savory dish of beef and yogurt filling and our sweet bread balls with cream cheese in the middle so this seemed very familiar to me. This process that is.

Bake as many as fit on your cookie sheet. They really don't expand. Break one open and try it! OMG!!

Now, take a few while holding the camera and run away with them! You can either present them to the kiddos and hope they will try them or just find your happy place and enjoy!! I did both!

Thanks Cocoa! Now, I'm off to shower and clean up the mess in our living room and figure out what to make for lunch! Took pictures of the garage as it is being removed of its contents and I am so excited that I get my very own STUDIO!! It has begun!!