Canned Peanut Butter Candy Cookies

Something has got to give. I can't go on making all these cookies! Because who eats them all? I do. The Husband will only consume so many and that's only if they have chocolate and/or peanut butter in them. He is not a fan of fruit or vegetables. Not that any of my cookies have vegetables in them, but you never know. If my pants keep getting tighter, I might just have to come up with some sort of cookie made entirely of cauliflower. Just like my mashed potatoes. That's right. My "faux" mashed potatoes are made of cauliflower. And you know what? They're delicious.

I think the extra weight is making me cranky.

I have no idea why these are called Canned Peanut Butter Candy Cookies, except that maybe you're supposed to store them in cute little cans or something, but who do you think this is? Certainly not someone who keeps cookies around long enough to store them in cutesy containers. Although I do have a thing for cookie jars. They all inevitably turn into dust collectors. But they're stinkin' cute.

If you like Reese's peanut butter cups, peanut butter all by itself, chocolate (who doesn't???), or cookies in general, these are for you. Just don't do what I did to the first batch and overcook them. Because they go from moist and delicious to damn I need a dentist and delicious in no time. Watch them and take them out before you think they're done. I'm trying to get better at following this same advice.

Ingredients
¾ cup chunky peanut butter (I used smooth)
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 ¼ cups AP flour
2 cups miniature peanut butter cups, quartered
1/3 cup milk chocolate chips (for drizzle)

Directions
Cream together butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar.

Add egg and mix until well blended. Mix in vanilla.

Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Beat into butter mixture on low speed until just mixed.

Stir in peanut butter cups. (Try not to eat them all beforehand.)

Cover and chill for 1 hour or until firm.

Now, I will share these very specific instructions and then I will tell you I didn't follow them at all.

Preheat oven to 375. For test cookie, measure inside diameter of container. Form 1/3 cup dough into 1/4-inch-thick disc, about 2 inches in diameter less than the diameter of container. (HUH?) (One-third cup dough patted into 4-inch disc yields 5-inch cookie. Measure amount of dough used and diameter of cookie before and after baking. Make adjustments before making remaining cookies.) Place dough on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks and cool completely.

Now, I don't know about you, but that made little sense to me. And, according to the recipe, this makes nine 5-inch cookies. I wanted to make more than that, so I made them smaller. This definitely affected my baking time and is directly responsible for overcooking the first few.

Basically, you want to make sure all your cookies are the same size, but that's true of any cookie. As long as they're all the same size, they'll all cook in the same amount of time. Just know that if you make them smaller or larger, your baking time will vary. So, the whole "test cookie" idea might not be a bad one.

Your call.

For the icing, just melt the chocolate chips and drizzle over the cookies. You can do so in a microwaveable plastic bag, snip the end off and pipe away. Or you can melt them in a cup and use a spoon or fork like I did. It's much easier to eat the leftover chocolate if you do it my way. It's hard to lick all the chocolate out of the plastic bag without making a mess. Trust me.


I still have some of the dough in my freezer, along with dough from the other three types of cookies I've made in the last week. It's a problem I tell you.

Now, go forth and make these cookies. They're delicious. And the cookie dough? Holy crap.

I'm sorry there aren't more photos but I was really disappointed with the way these ones turned out. The photos, not the cookies. The cookies were delicious.

Oh, I already said that, didn't I?


(Edited to add: Here's the complete straight-out-of-the-book recipe.)