Chocolate Peanut Butter Munchies

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER MUNCHIES

1½ c. flour
½ c. unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ c. butter, softened*
½ c. plus 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
½ c. packed brown sugar
¾ c. peanut butter
1 egg
1 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
¾ c. powdered sugar

In medium bowl stir together flour, cocoa, and baking soda; set aside. In large mixing bowl combine butter, ½ c. sugar, brown sugar, and ¼ c. peanut butter; beat with mixer until combined. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Beat well. Beat in as much flour mixture as you can with mixer. Using wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour mixture.* Shape dough into 32 balls, each about 1¼” in diameter.* Set aside.

For filling, combine powdered sugar and remaining ½ c. peanut butter in bowl. With mixer, beat until smooth; knead by hand if necessary. Shape into 32 balls.

Preheat oven to 350F. On work surface, flatten a chocolate dough ball; top with peanut butter ball.* Shape flattened dough over peanut butter ball, completely covering peanut butter ball; reshape into ball. Repeat with remaining balls.

Place balls 2” apart on cookie sheet. Flatten with bottom of glass dipped in the 2 tbsp. of sugar.* Bake about 8 minutes. Let stand 1 minute. Transfer to racks to cool. Makes 32 cookies.


*NOTES:
-- I used margarine instead of butter. This may explain why I didn’t need to use a wooden spoon to mix in the remaining flour mixture. The dough was quite soft and moist.
-- I made my chocolate balls 2” in diameter and ended up with about 18 balls, so I split the peanut butter filling into 18 balls.
-- Since the dough was soft and moist, I sprinkled a tiny bit of flour on the work surface and my hands to prevent the chocolate balls from sticking while I patted them gently to flatten. I flattened them to about ¼” thick.
-- It helps to lightly moisten the bottom of the glass before dipping it into the sugar the first time. I flattened the balls to about ½” thick.
-- I ended up baking the cookies for 11 minutes and cooling on the pan for 5 minutes before moving to a rack for cooling. I tried 8 minutes/1 minute and the first cookie I tried to move to a rack fell apart. Longer baking helped.