Peanut Butter Cup Filled Peanut Butter Cookies

I went to New Orleans a little over a week ago.  It was delightful.  The food was delicious.  The architecture was beautiful.  

I rode a steam boat, went on a haunted tour of the French quarter, and walked for miles and miles, among other things.  I ate lots of delicious food but never ate a beignet.  I kept planning to, but time slipped out of my hands.

Wikipedia says cookies originated in Persia in the 7th century.  They spread throughout Europe when the Muslims conquered Spain.

Cookies came to America through the Dutch in the 1620s through New Amsterdam.  We get our word for cookie from the Dutch.  The Dutch word for cookie is koekje.  Other English speaking countries call cookies biscuits.  The Scottish use call a plain bun a cookie.  

The peanut butter cookie recipe came from food.com.  I never used it before, but it turned out well.  I made it as directed, but I added peanut butter cups in the center of each cookie.

The ingredients are mini peanut butter cups, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1 1/4 cups flour, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

I added the butter and sugars to a bowl.  I beat them until the butter was light and fluffy.

I mixed in the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla.

I added the flour, baking soda, and salt.

I stirred well.  I let the dough refrigerate over night, but that isn't a step in the recipe.

I formed a gob of dough around a peanut butter cup.

I put the mounds of dough on a sheet pan two inches apart.

I baked the cookies for 11 minutes at 350 degrees.  The recipe says to bake them at 375, but I think that temperature made the cookie tops too brown.

The cookies cooled a little on the pan before I removed them to cool completely on a wire rack.

The outside of the cookies were browned, crisp, and caramelized.

The inside was tender soft and chewy.

The peanut butter cup melted and softened.  The candy cups were a sweet, unexpected surprise in the center.

Peanut butter and chocolate are a perfect combination.  The peanut butter flavor is pronounced in the cookie dough and the flavor is reiterated in the peanut butter cup.  It's a peanut butter explosion!

The peanut butter cookie recipe is a keeper.  I would make them again.