Eat Well, Live Happy: Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

It's still a few days away from Thanksgiving, but I don't think it's too early to start making Christmas cookies. One of my good friends is in Afghanistan, and I want to send cookies to her that get there before Christmas, so today I made my first batch. My sister Diana has made Peanut Butter Cup Cookies the past few years that were good, so I decided to try them out. I bought a bag of Reese's mini peanut butter cups and a bag of dark chocolate ones for the dark chocolate lovers such as myself, and my friend. The dark chocolate peanut butter cups are only slightly darker than the others, so I bought green and red mini muffin baking cups to line my mini muffin baking pans. I used green for the dark chocolate and red for the milk chocolate. Now I will easily know which ones to send her!

This recipe is very easy. I didn't roll the dough into balls, which made it less time consuming. However, my cookies don't look as perfect as others I've seen online, so next time I'll roll the dough and see if that makes a difference. Instead, I used a small cookie scoop to scoop the dough into the mini muffin pans. I made a double recipe and ended up with 72 cookies

A few tips - freeze the peanut butter cups so they are easier to push into the cookies. If you are rolling the dough, you may want to refrigerate it first for 30 minutes to an hour so it is easier to handle. Also, freeze the cookies right after you push the peanut butter cups in. This will prevent the chocolate from running and also speed up the cooling process. I freeze these cookies anyway since they are for Christmas. It makes packaging them up easier if they are already frozen since the chocolate will be set.

Overall I'd say this recipe is pretty simple. And the cookie I tasted was very good! These are an excellent addition to a cookie platter during the holidays, and also great to give as a gift!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

1¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup white sugar
½ cup peanut butter
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons milk
40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Unwrap peanut butter cups and freeze them until they are ready to be used. This will make them easier to press into the warm cookies.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.

Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture; mix well.

Refrigerate the dough for about an hour to make it easier to work with. Shape dough into 40 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan or mini muffin pan lined with paper baking cups. Alternately, do not refrigerate dough, and use a small cookie scoop to scoop the cookie dough directly into the muffin pans or paper baking cups.

Bake at 375°F for about 8 minutes. Do not overbake, cookies should be soft. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each cookie. Once finished, refrigerate or freeze cookies while still in the pan to prevent chocolate from running. After the chocolate is hardened, carefully remove cookies from pan.

Makes about 40 cookies.