If you love peanut butter and chocolate, you will definitely love these chocolate peanut butter stuffed cookies.
Imagine sinking your teeth into lightly crisp and soft chocolate peanut butter cookies and being surprised with a deliciously decadent chocolate peanut butter filling on the inside. Well, that’s what these peanut butter stuffed cookies are all about.
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❤️Why you will love this recipe
- These rich peanut butter chocolate cookies have a soft and crumbly texture and it complements perfectly the soft stuffed chocolate peanut butter filling in the center.
- These cookies would be perfect for chocolate and peanut butter lovers. Peanut butter is not only as used as the filling but is also added to the dough. And so is chocolate, it’s in both the dough as well as the filling.
- And making these cookies is fairly easy. I would not say it is super simple either mostly because of the soft peanut butter filling, but with the right techniques, you should be able to make these easily.
Like these decadent chocolate and peanut butter cookies? Here are my other posts you might want to check out too:
- Simple Peanut Butter Cookies with Sprinkles
- Ultimate Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Oreo Crust
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
📋Ingredients
Cookies
- All purpose flour + cocoa powder + baking powder + baking soda + salt - mix and sift these together to combine them.
- Granulated sugar (caster sugar) - fine sugar works best for these cookies. Coarse white sugar will leave your cookies with specks of sugar marks on the surface after baking.
- Soft brown sugar (dark brown sugar or light brown sugar) - adds a lovely depth in flavor of the cookies.
- Butter - I use salted butter. If using unsalted butter, add a small extra pinch of salt.
- Peanut butter - you can use either the smooth version or the chunky version. The chunky peanut butter will give you cookies extra texture with the little chunks of peanut . I have used crunchy peanut butter in my recipe.
- Vanilla extract - adds a lovely flavor and aroma to the cookies.
- Egg - helps to hold the dough together.
Filling
- Peanut butter - similar to the cookie dough, you can use either the smooth version or the chunky version.
- Cocoa powder - use unsweetened cocoa powder and sift it to break any lumps.
- Powdered sugar (Icing sugar) - similar to the cocoa powder, icing sugar should be sifted before using to break any lumps.
*Refer to the recipe card below for exact quantities of the ingredients above. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*
🧾Substitution and variations
- If you want to make non-chocolate version of these cookies, simply replace the cocoa powder in the cookie dough with all purpose flour.
- As for the filling, you can omit the cocoa powder. I do not recommend replacing it with powdered sugar as it will make the filling too sweet. For easy handling, freeze the filling after scooping it (see Expert Tips below).
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you do try, please let me know in the comments section below!
👩🏻🍳How to make
Making the cookie stuffing
- Start by making the filling for this peanut butter stuffed cookies. Measure peanut butter and sift powdered sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl.
- Mix all the ingredients until they come together into a thick paste.
- Scoop the filling into 1 teaspoon sizes (you can use a measuring spoon or a cookie scoop to scoop the filling out) and form into tiny peanut butter ball and place them on a lined plate or tray. If the filling is too soft to form the balls, chill it for 10 to 15 minutes and then shape the balls.
- Chill the divided filling while you mix the dough.
Mixing the dough for the stuffed cookies
- Start by measuring the butter, peanut butter, and both sugars into a large bowl of an electric mixer (hand mixer or stand mixer). Beat all four ingredients until they turn creamy. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Next, add the egg and vanilla extract. Beat until all traces of the egg are no longer visible.
- Finally, add the remaining dry ingredients (flour mixture, i.e flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda). Mix until the dough comes together into a soft ball.
- Scoop and divide the dough into 1 tablespoon size balls of dough.
Shaping and baking the cookies
- Shape each of the chocolate peanut butter cookie dough balls into a small bowl shape (balls with a deep dent).
- Fill one peanut butter filling ball (prepared and chilled in the step above) into the bowl shaped dough (chocolate cookie portion).
- Seal the peanut butter in.
- Gently shape the cookie into a round ball. Flatten it lightly with your fingers and place the flattened cookie ball on a parchment paper or baking sheet / cookie sheet lined baking tray.
Continue the process to make the remaining peanut butter stuffed chocolate cookies. Bake cookies at 175 degrees Celsius for 9 minutes.
Remove the baked chocolate cookies from the oven, let them rest in the tray for about one minute before transferring them onto a wire rack (cooling rack) to cool completely. Store the cookies in an airtight container.
🍽️Serving & storage
- These cookies can last for a good 2 weeks. Keep them covered in an airtight container to retain their crisp and crumbly texture.
💡Expert tips
Cocoa powder and powdered sugar
- I have used cocoa powder in both the cookies as well as the filling. As for the powdered sugar, I have used it in the filling. Both of these ingredients tend to be lumpy. And these tiny lumps cannot be broken by merely mixing or beating them with a cake mixer. The best way to work with cocoa powder and powdered sugar is therefore to sift them.
Cookie size and texture
- The cookie dough for these peanut butter stuffed cookies is 1 tablespoon in size and the stuffing a teaspoon size. For this size, the cookies need to be baked for 9 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius.
- If you wish to make larger cookies, retain the oven temperature but increase the baking time accordingly. Similarly, if you wish to make smaller peanut butter stuffed cookies, reduce the time accordingly. Do take note that the smaller the cookies, the harder it gets to seal the stuffing in the cookies.
- For the given time and cookie size, you will get peanut butter stuffed cookies that are soft and crumbly. Baking the cookies longer will give you a more crunchy cookie texture.
💭FAQs
The peanut butter stuffing is soft but not sticky. Still, it is quite a challenge to put it into the cookies and the most effective way to work with it is to chill it until it is more manageable or to freeze them.
And to make sure the filling is consistent in all cookies, I scooped it out using my measuring spoon . Once scooped, I formed them into round balls and chilled them until they were firm. I made these in batches and took them out of the fridge, one batch at a time so that they don’t become soft again at room temperature while shaping the cookies.
For the chocolate peanut butter cookie dough, to make sure the cookie sizes were consistent, I also used a measuring spoon to scoop the dough out. And for these, I used a full tablespoon measurement. For each scoop of dough, I rolled it into a smooth ball, made a deep dent in the center, filled in one ball of chilled chocolate peanut butter balls in the center and carefully pinched the cookie dough to cover the centers. And I flattened these stuffed cookies slightly before putting them on a cookie tray for baking.
If you find the cookie dough too dry or crumbly to work with, try to knead it with your hands for a 15 to 20 seconds. That should make it soft and easier to work with.
Yes you can. The difference is that your cookies will now be stuffed with plain peanut butter and not the chocolate version. The other difference is the change in the consistency of your cookie centers - it will now be a lot softer.
You can add more icing sugar to compensate for the cocoa powder but that might make your stuffed cookie centers too sweet.
The other way is to chill or freeze the peanut butter filling thoroughly so that it is easier to work with.
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📖Recipe
Chocolate Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies
For best results, use the metrics measurements. US customary measurements have not been tested and are only meant for guide.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 190 g all purpose flour
- 45 g cocoa powder sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 90 g granulated sugar
- 100 g soft brown sugar
- 120 g butter
- 60 g peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Filling
- 160 g peanut butter
- 15 g cocoa powder sifted
- 100 g powdered sugar sifted
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 175°Celsius. Prepare baking trays lined with parchment paper.
- Sieve flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda together and keep them aside.
- In a clean bowl, cream butter, peanut butter and both the white and brown sugars until creamy. Add the egg and continue beating until it is well incorporated.
- Next, add vanilla extract and beat for about 15 seconds, followed by the sifted dry ingredients. Mix until all the ingredients are well incorporated, and the dough comes together, soft. Set aside.
- To make the filling, sift cocoa powder and powdered sugar into a bowl.
- Add the peanut butter and mix until the filling comes together.
- Using a 1 teaspoon measuring spoon, scoop the filling out onto a plate. Shape each scoop into a round ball before placing them in the fridge to chill.
- To assemble the cookies, scoop 1 tablespoon of cookie dough, form it into a round ball and make a deep dent in the center. Place one chilled filling ball in the center and cover the dent by pinching the cookie dough together.
- With very light pressure, roll the cookie in your palms until its round. Place on a lined baking tray and flatten slightly with your fingers. Repeat the process until all the cookies are done.
- Bake the cookies for 9 minutes at 175°Celsiuc. Once baked, let them cool slightly on the baking tray before transferring them into a wire rack to cool completely.
- Place cooled cookies in an airtight container. The cookies can last up to 2 weeks if stored properly.
Notes
- I have used cocoa powder in both the cookies as well as the filling. As for the icing sugar, I have used it in the filling. Both of these ingredients tend to be lumpy. And these tiny lumps cannot be broken by merely mixing or beating them with a cake mixer. The best way to work with cocoa powder and icing sugar is therefore to sift them.
- The cookie dough for these peanut butter stuffed cookies is 1 tablespoon in size and the stuffing a teaspoon size. For this size, the cookies need to be baked for 9 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius.
- If you wish to make larger cookies, retain the oven temperature but increase the baking time accordingly. Similarly, if you wish to make smaller peanut butter stuffed cookies, reduce the time accordingly. Do take note that the smaller the cookies, the harder it gets to seal the stuffing in the cookies.
- For the given time and cookie size, you will get peanut butter stuffed cookies that are soft and crumbly. Baking the cookies longer will give you a more crunchy cookie texture.
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