Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Soft and chewy dark chocolatey cookies loaded with peanut butter chips and a mouthwatering peanut butter butterscotch center!
Ingredients
Peanut Butter Truffle Filling:
- 1 ¼ cup butterscotch chips
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
Dough:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 (3.56 oz) package instant chocolate pudding mix (dry)
- ¾ cup peanut butter chips plus more for topping
Instructions
Make the truffle filling:
- Line a baking sheet with wax paper; set aside.
- Place butterscotch chips and peanut butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in the microwave for 1 minute; stir until smooth. Place mixture in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes, stirring about every 15 minutes, until mixture is firm enough to scoop.
- Scoop mixture into roughly Tablespoon-sized balls and place onto prepared pan. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Make the dough:
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together until combined; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth. Add in both sugars and mix on high for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition until combined. Add in the vanilla. Then stir in the pudding mix.
- With mixer set on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture into the wet mixture until everything has been incorporated. Remove bowl from the mixer, and stir in peanut butter chips by hand.
- Scoop out about 2 Tablespoons of dough per cookie (about the size of a golfball), then place it onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Repeat process with the rest of the dough. Chill for about 10 minutes, then flatten each mound of dough into a disc.
- Place a frozen truffle filling ball onto a dough disc, then wrap to seal all the edges. Gently roll into a ball, then place back onto the baking sheet*. Chill dough balls in the refrigerator for at one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and space the dough balls 2 inches apart on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Gently press the tops of each ball, so they look like little hockey pucks. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until puffed and done around the edges. Press a few more peanut butter chips into the tops of each cookie, if desired.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Let the cookies rest for 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
*I ended up freezing all of the dough balls on the same baking sheet, then baking them on a separate sheet.