Super Peanut Butter Cookies

I've never had a more satisfying cookie in my entire life. I love peanut butter but never enjoyed peanut butter cookies because they never taste enough like peanut butter. Well, I was granted my wish today when I discovered that you can put peanut butter literally inside the cookie! Well, not peanut butter alone, you have to melt it with some peanut butter chips to make it more stable, but seriously these are so amazing, and rich, and peanut buttery, and I think I've honestly reached my baking zenith. I'm not sure if I'll ever be better than I am now, that's how happy these cookies make me.

The recipe is here and pictures of the process are below:

Ingredients:

Peanut butter interior:

• 1 cup peanut butter chips

• ¼ cup creamy peanut butter (JIF works well)

Cookie dough:

• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (JIF works well)

• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

• 3/4-1 cup packed dark brown sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 large egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 2 cups mini Reese's peanut butter cups, cut into fourths, or 2 cups mini chocolate chips or peanut butter chips

Directions:

1. Peanut Butter interior: Heat peanut butter chips and peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl about 30-60 seconds or until you can stir it with a spoon it all melts. Place in refrigerator and cool 5-10 minutes or until it becomes thick enough to roll.

2. Note: Watch the peanut butter mixture closely because it becomes rock solid easily and you have to remelt it! Stirring it occasionally in the fridge helps too.

3. When it is cold enough, roll it into 20 ~3/4 inch wide balls, place on a lined baking sheet and stick back in the refrigerator.

4. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a light (not dark) baking sheet with parchment paper.

5. Cookie dough: In a bowl mix together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

6. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment (or by hand with a spatula or hand mixer) mix together the peanut butter and butter until well combined.

7. Add in the brown sugar (you can add 1 cup and they'll be quite sweet) and mix well to combine.

8. Then add in egg and vanilla and mix well to combine.

9. Add in the flour mixture and mix in until just combined (do not overmix!)

10. Gently fold in the chips or pieces of mini Reese’s until just combined.

11. Then, to assemble the cookies, flatten a piece of dough into a cookie shape, place a peanut butter ball in the center, fold the dough around the ball, encasing it (see pictures below). If there’s a hole on top add a little more dough to completely encase the cookie. The cookies will be ~ the size of a golfball.

12. Bake cookies for 10-14 minutes on the middle rack in the oven. For a gooier cookie 10 minutes is good, but for a more baked cookie lean more towards 14 minutes. However, check the bottoms of the cookies to make sure they don’t burn if you cook them longer than 10 minutes.

13. Enjoy with a glass of milk.

14. 20 servings.

Peanut butter chips and peanut butter before melting.

Peanut butter chips and peanut butter after melting.

Peanut butter chips and butter after chilling ( stirred it as it chilled which slowed it from chilling to rock solid)

Rolling the peanut butter into 20 little balls.

Now time to start the dough. Peanut butter and butter before moving.

Peanut butter and butter after mixing.

After mixing in the sugar

After mixing in the egg and vanilla

After mixing in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder)

The recipe calls for quartered mini reese's cups, so I cut them into 4 little pieces.

And mixed them into the dough!

How to make the filled cookies.

Some of the cookies before baking.

Cookies before baking.

Cookies while baking.

Some of the cookies after baking.

So thicc.

Coooookieeesss.

A beautiful cookie.

That's even more beautiful on the inside!

What they look like freshly baked.

What they look like the next day.

SUCH BEAUTY!!!