Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Chocolate cookie dough, chocolate chunks, peanut butter chips, and a peanut butter filling come together in this fun Halloween treat. Sprinkles and candy eyes are optional but highly recommended!
Peanut butter and chocolate, a match made in heaven. The peanut butter filling in this cookie is very similar to the peanut butter filling in a Reese’s peanut butter cup, firm, sweet, and just melts in your mouth with every bite. The double chocolate cookie is fudgy and rich and can be easily described as cookie meets brownie in terms of texture and flavor. The chocolate chunks and peanut butter chips added to this dough give the cookie that soft gooey bite that will have you coming back for more. The best part of course is the simple yet festive decorations on top. This is an easy cookie to make, requires no chilling, and can be decorated in minutes. Win, win, win!
Need more Halloween Cookie Recipes? Here are my faves:
- Stuffed Dark Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Halloween Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Spiced Hot Chocolate Cookies
- Red Velvet Cookies-Stuffed
Why I Love This Recipe
Flavor-I love peanut butter and chocolate and there are different layers of each of these flavors in this cookie. There are two types of cocoas used in the cookies base, regular baking cocoa and black cocoa. The black cocoa has a rich dark color that make these cookies so visually striking and it also imparts a sweeter chocolate flavor to the dough. The addition of the chopped bittersweet chocolate creates pockets of melted chocolate in the cookie and enhances the richness of chocolate in this cookie. The peanut butter chips add a great peanut butter flavor that pairs well with the chopped chocolate and chocolate dough. The peanut butter filling reminds me of a Reeses big cup, where it’s not creamy, it is a little dry but when you take a bite the mixture of the powdered sugar and peanut butter just melts in your mouth and comes together with the other flavors in the cookie.
Texture- Imagine if a good fudge brownie and cookie had a baby, that is what the texture of these double chocolate peanut butter cookies is like. Rich, crisp outer edge, and very soft and melty chocolate and peanut butter inside make this cookie irresistible. The peanut butter filling is firm but melts in your mouth when you take a bit out of the center. This creates a fun cookie experience with the varying textures inside the cookie.
Simple Recipe-These cookies are so easy to put together and take a few minutes to decorate. Most ingredients many of you will have in your pantry and there is no chill time required prior to baking. Rolling each cookie portion in sprinkles takes seconds and the eyes are placed on top of the cookies when they are fresh out of the oven so no waiting for them to cool to decorate.
Perfect Party Cookie-These can be made well in advance, don’t have to be refrigerated and can be cut in halves or quarters to share for a crowd. They transport well and are very sturdy cookies when they are cooled off. Using chocolate chips to adhere the eye candies helps to secure the decorative finishes during transit. This is a perfect Halloween or October celebration cookie.
Sharing is Caring-These double chocolate peanut butter cookies are great to share and require way less work than making individual bite-sized treats. As is, this recipe makes 10 extra-large cookies. Cut in half you have 20 servings of this cookie and if you quarter them, 40 bite sized cookies with filling. This is much easier than scooping out and filling 40 bite sized cookies and the peanut butter filling is sturdy to handle slicing, making this treat fun to share with a crowd.
Ingredients You Need
-Butter-room temperature and unsalted
-Granulated & brown sugar
-Eggs
-Vanilla extract
-Flour
-Cocoa powdered- I used a baking cocoa powder that was unsweetened.
-Black Cocoa Powder- I really like King Arthur Brand Black cocoa powder. I have used it several times and the flavor and color yields wonderful results in my desserts.
-Baking Soda
-Salt-for cookie dough. I use kosher salt.
-Peanut Butter Chips- I used Reeses brand in this recipe, it is my go-to brand for peanut butter chips. They stay creamy, aren’t waxy, and melt beautifully when the cookie is warm. I highly recommend.
-Semisweet chocolate bar-I used Guittard semisweet chocolate bars in this recipe, but any semisweet chocolate bar will do just fine. I like to add chopped chocolate to this dough since it adds larger pieces of chocolate that melt into delicious puddles of chocolate inside the cookie. Chocolate chips are a great substitute.
Peanut Butter Filling
-Peanut Butter-I used creamy peanut butter. You can use crunchy peanut butter if you like more texture in your cookies.
-Powdered sugar
-Salt
-Vanilla Extract
Let’s Make Peanut Butter Filling
These little peanut butter truffles are so good and easy to make. I have dipped these in chocolate before to take to potlucks and they are always a hit. Today though, I am keeping it simple and rolling them out naked to stuff into the double chocolate cookie dough.
In a bowl I combine all the filling ingredients and mix with a spoon until it is combined. The mixture will look dry and crumbly at this point, but they will come together in the next step.
Using a tablespoon, I portion out 10 rounds of peanut butter filling. I take the filling between my palms and gently but firmly press and roll them into a ball. The heat of my hands will help shape and smooth them into spheres about an inch in diameter. The perfect size for the center filling of this cookie.
I place the 10 peanut butter rounds on a tray and get started on the cookie dough.
Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies, Here I come!
The dough for this cookie is easy to throw together and only takes about 10 minutes to prepare. No chill time is required for this dough. If you wanted to chill the dough it will last in the fridge for up to 3 days and can be frozen up to 6 months.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees while making the dough.
I start out by creaming the butter and both types of sugars in a bowl until very creamy. I like to see the butter light in color and fluffy, this usually takes around 3-5 minutes on high speed.
I add in the eggs and vanilla extract and continue mixing on high for a few more minutes. I like to sift my dry ingredients on top of the bowl then mix on low until it just comes together. It’s important to sift the dry ingredients into the wet mixture since cocoa powder can have big lumps in it.
I chop the semisweet chocolate bars into ½ inch pieces and add to the dough along with the package of peanut butter chips. I mix these in on low and stop the mixer when they are just incorporated.
I gather a piece of parchment, baking sheet, 4-ounce cookie scoop, and peanut butter filling and begin to scoop and fill the cookies.
Using a 4-ounce cookie scoop, I take a portion of dough into the scoop, make a well in the center, place a peanut butter ball in the center well, then pinch the dough on the sides closed to seal in the peanut butter filling.
The filling of this cookie is firm and very forgiving, which makes these stuffed cookie fool proof in my opinion.
I place the stuffed cookie on a baking sheet and repeat with the remaining cookie dough to get a total of 10 cookies. I then roll the tops of the cookies in festive sprinkles. I used green, black, and purple skull and crossbones themed sprinkles I found at my local Target but any festive sprinkles mix will do.
I bake 6 cookies at a time on a parchment lined baking sheet. These cookies will spread minimally while baking and are done when the edges of the cookies look dry to the touch.
While the cookies are baking, I get the 20 chocolate chips and 20 candy eyes separated (I used 2 candy eyes per cookie. Adjust according to the amount of candy eyes you would like to add to decorate your cookies).
While the cookies are fresh out of the oven and very hot, I place the chocolate chips, pointy side down into the cookie. I repeat this twice on every cookie (20 times) and the heat of the cookie will begin to melt the chocolate. I then go back to the first cookie and place the eyes on top of the now soft and slightly melted chocolate and lightly press the candy eye in the chocolate to secure it.
I let the cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. If packaging these up for an event, I recommend letting them cool completely before packaging. Even though they are large and sturdy, the melted chocolate and peanut butter chips inside the cookie need at least 20-30 minutes to set up.
The perfect double chocolate peanut butter cookie that is delicious, festive, and great for sharing. Happy Spooky Season Y’all!
If you try this recipe and love it as much as I do, please tag, follow, and like @sunshinetxcookies on Instagram and Facebook. New posts every Thursday so be sure to follow me for more delicious cookie recipes. Happy Baking!
Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter unsalted, room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ tspn salt
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1½ tspn vanilla extract
- ¼ cup cocoa powder unsweetened
- ½ cup black cocoa powder I used King Arthur Brand
- 1 tspn baking soda
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 bag Reeses Peanut Butter chips 10 ounce bag
- 4 oz chopped semisweet chocolate I used Guittard baking chocolate chopped into ½ inch pieces,
- 2½ cups flour
- ½ cup festive sprinkles
- 20 chocolate chips optional, for decorating tops of cookies.
- 20 candy eyes optional, for decorating tops of cookies.
Peanut Butter Filling
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tspn vanilla extract
- ½ tspn salt
Instructions
Peanut Butter Filling
- In a bowl combine peanut butter, salt, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.
- Mix until it is a smooth paste.
- Using a tablespoon, portion out 10 balls of peanut butter filling.
- Roll each ball between your palms to smooth out the edges. Set aside while you make the cookie dough.
Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
- In a bowl cream together butter and sugars on high speed until pale and creamy, 3-5 minutes.
- Add in eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and mix well.
- Sift the dry ingredients over the bowl of wet ingredients. This will help ensure there are no lumps of cocoa powder in your dough. Mix on low until just incorporated. Do not overmix.
- Chop the semisweet chocolate bar into 1/2 inch chunks. Add to the dough along with the peanut butter chips and mix on low until they are evenly distributed in the dough.
- Preheat oven to 375*F while you stuff the cookie dough with peanut butter filling.
- Using a 4-ounce cookie scoop, take a full scoop of cookie dough, make a well in the center, and place the peanut butter filling in the well. Pinch the cookie dough closed over the peanut butter filling and release the scoop onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
- After the dough is scooped, you can roll the tops in decorative sprinkles. I used purple, black, and green skulls and crossbones sprinkles.
- Bake 4-6 cookies per tray for 12-14 minutes. They are done when the edges look dry.
- While the cookies are fresh from the oven, place two chocolate chips on the tops, pointed side into the cookie, being careful since the cookies are hot. Press them gently in the dough. Repeat on all of the cookies.
- Place candy eyes on top of the now meting chocolate chips. The melted chocolate will secure the eye candies so they stay in place and don't fall off.
- Allow the cookies to cool for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Enjoy at any Halloween gathering this month!
