Double Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies

Love peanut butter? Love chocolate? These cookies are similar to Reese's peanut butter cups but about 400 times better! It's been awhile since I've tried a new Martha Stewart recipe, and boy am I glad I found this one. My only complaint is that the recipe states you should bake the cookies until firm, so I left them in a few minutes longer which made them a little crunchy instead of soft. Lesson learned, next time I'll bake them less than the 15-16 minutes that I did this time. Still, they're delicious.




Fun Fact! Butter has a lower cooking temperature than shortening, but you can substitute one for the other, 1:1. Just keep in mind they will probably be done faster.

Give these a try with peanut butter chips instead, for a more peanut buttery flavor!



Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 + 1/4 cups firmly packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter


 Preheat oven to 350 and line 2 cookies sheets (you may need 3) with parchment paper.

Start by mixing the flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Set aside.

Next, cream together the butter, shortening, sugar and 1 Cup of the brown sugar until light and fluffy, or 2-3 minutes. Scrapes sides of the bowl well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add vanilla.

Add flour mixture gradually and mix until thoroughly combined. Mix in chocolate chips until just combined. Chill dough at least 1 hour. (I chilled it over night- a great way to prepare for cookies the next day for guests without all the mess the day of their visit!

*While making these, my bf asked a great question. Why refrigerate cookie dough? I assumed it had to do with the texture of the cookie when forming them (making it easier to work with), but after a bit of research, here's what I found.

-Allows dough to cook some before it starts to spread out too much, leaving the cookies stuck together and overcooked
-Allows the gluten to relax! More gluten= rubbery cookies
-Allows the dry ingredients to better absorb moisture

Here's an interesting post about chilling cookie dough.

Once the dough is chilled, drop 1 tablespoon of dough at a time onto baking sheets, spacing cookies about 2 inches apart. Make a thumbprint in the center of each cookie. Fill thumbprint with 2 teaspoons peanut butter mixture. (This is a great step for kids to help with!) Top with a second tablespoon of flattened dough. Carefully mold dough to cover the surprise.

Bake 12-13 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on the cookie sheets about 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Finally, enjoy the goodness.

Enjoy!