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If you love the classic combination of chocolate and peanut butter, these Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies are right up your alley! Chewy chocolate gems filled with a sweet peanut butter surprise!

These Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies are a fun treat for the Reeses’ lovers in your life.

A white bowl with 4 Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies
Table of Contents hide
1 Why You Must Make
2 Expert Tips:
3 Frequently Asked Questions
4 You May Also Like
5 Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies

Why You Must Make

  • I first made these peanut butter-filled chocolate cookies when Katie was a wee Girl Scout, and she was in heaven with her first nibble. We had a meeting at our house and cookies had to be on the menu. These were cookie pushers extraordinaire, after all. If you’re a fan of Tagalongs or Do Si Dos, you’ll love these cookies.
  • Who doesn’t love a surprise? And that’s what you get when you bite into one of these chocolate cookies!
Filled Peanut butter cookies on a square white plate.

Expert Tips:

I found this recipe on the Martha Stewart website many years ago. With two out of my 3 children being Reese’s fanatics, the chocolate-peanut butter combo is always a winner around here. I sent most of these home with my oldest…and his roommates and their significant others asked him to bring back more cookies when he stopped by later in the week. And Katie had a big grin on her face after the first bite, telling her big brother that they taste just like peanut butter cups. And she’s the one who usually snubs any chocolate cookie, so I consider this a victory!

  • PRO-Tip: Make sure to chill both the cookie dough and the filling. This will help the baked cookies keep their shape instead of baking flat.
  • Since these cookies are made with Dutch-processed cocoa powder, they use baking powder as well as baking soda. This is due to the chemical composition of the cocoa powder.
  • Make sure your baking powder has not expired before starting to make these cookies. It often expires before you use it all since it isn’t utilized as much as baking soda.
  • PRO-Tip: Test your baking powder by putting a spoonful into hot water. It should bubble vigorously if it’s fresh. If it does not, toss it and buy a new can.
  • If filling cookies is new to you, you may want to bake a test cookie to make sure you don’t overstuff them. If the filling oozes out during the baking time, try using a little less or patting out your chocolate dough a little thinner.
  • Note, if you see any of the filling after you roll the dough into balls, they will leak.
  • I used Jif peanut butter. Do not use natural peanut butter as the consistency is too thin.
A square white plate with 2 chocolate peanut butter cookies, one broken in half

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are Filled Cookies?

Filled or Stuffed Cookies are when the dough is either wrapped around a filling, made into cups and filled, or baked first, then filled like an Oreo or Linzer cookie.

How Do You Stuff Cookies?

I’ve stuffed these cookies using two different methods. The first time, I made two flat discs of dough and sealed them around a spoonful of filling. With this batch, I made one disc and folded it over the filling, sealed well, and then rolled it into a ball.

How Do I Make My Cookies Look Bakery Worthy?

First, to make professional-looking cookies, make sure the dough balls are very round when you place them on the baking sheet.
Hold back some chocolate chips, nuts, or candies that are IN the cookies to garnish the cookies when they’re warm and fresh out of the oven.

Also, while the cookies are still hot out of the oven, use a spatula to carefully tap them into nice rounds if they need some reshaping.

You May Also Like

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Filled Peanut butter cookies on a square white plate.
The Recipe:

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies

Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 14 minutes
Total Time 54 minutes
Yield 16 cookies

A delicious cookie with the classic chocolate-peanut butter combo adapted from Martha Stewart Living, February 2000

Ingredients

Cookies:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar (plus more to roll dough dough balls)
  • 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (reserve half to garnish cookies when they come out of the oven)

Filling:

  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1/2-3/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

  1. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt Set aside.
  2. In your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, shortening, sugar, and brown sugar for a couple of minutes until light and fluffy.
  3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing till incorporated. Add vanilla, then gradually add dry ingredients, and mix on low speed until well combined.
  4. Stir in half the chocolate chips by hand.
  5. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and chill until firm, about 1 hour.
  6. Preheat the oven to 350º. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
  7. In a small bowl, stir together peanut butter and powdered sugar (taste for sweetness to see if you want the full amount). Chill for an hour to let firm up.
  8. Drop dough by heaping tablespoons about 2 inches apart. I used a medium cookie scoop.
  9. Use the heel of your hand and compress the dough to make a flat disc.
  10. Top each round of dough with about a teaspoon of the peanut butter filling centering them.
  11. With your fingers press down around the perimeter of the dough to make a larger rim.
  12. Fold each round of dough in half, sealing the edges, then roll into a ball.
  13. Roll in sugar and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
  14. Bake until firm, about 12-14 minutes. Carefully press some chocolate chips on the surface of the cookies to garnish.
  15. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to wire racks to finish cooling.

Notes

Total time does not include chilling and cooling times.

Do not use regular cocoa powered. Look for Dutch processed cocoa in the baking aisle.

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

16

Serving Size:

1 cookie
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 313Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 27mgSodium: 107mgCarbohydrates: 43gFiber: 2gSugar: 27gProtein: 5g

Thatskinnychickcanbake.com occasionally offers nutritional information for recipes contained on this site. This information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although thatskinnychickcanbake.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased can change the nutritional information in any given recipe. Also, many recipes on thatskinnychickcanbake.com recommend toppings, which may or may not be listed as optional and nutritional information for these added toppings is not listed. Other factors may change the nutritional information such as when the salt amount is listed “to taste,” it is not calculated into the recipe as the amount will vary. Also, different online calculators can provide different results. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information obtained is accurate.

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© Liz Berg
Cuisine: American / Category: Cookies