Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

When it comes to dessert, I LOVE the combination of chocolate and peanut butter! These delicious cookies are soft in the middle and are highly addictive. Next time I’ll add more chopped peanut butter cups because I felt that there wasn’t enough in each cookie. Don’t you love quality control? Sometimes you just have to have more than one cookie to make sure the recipe is blog worthy! :)

2 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8.5 oz. bag mini peanut butter cups (I would add more than this if possible.)

1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over low heat, stirring occasionally until smooth.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

4. On low speed, add the melted chocolate and dry ingredients. Stir in the chopped peanut butter cups.

5. Cover the mixing bowl and let stand (at room temperature) for 30-45 minutes so the chocolate will set up.

6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper.

7. Roll the dough into a ball using a rounded tablespoon of dough. Place the dough on the sheet pan 2-inches apart.

8. Bake the cookies 10-11 minutes. The cookies will be very soft in the middle but will set up when cooled. If you bake them 12 minutes or longer, they will be hard the next day.

9. Cool the cookies on the sheet pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.

This recipe makes about 68 cookies.

*NOTE* The cookies in the top picture look larger than the actual cookies.

~Make-Ahead Tip~

Shape the dough into balls. Place them on a sheet pan and cover with plastic wrap. Place the sheet pan in the freezer for 2 - 3 hours. Fill a labeled freezer bag with the frozen dough. Remove as much air as possible and seal tightly. Write the baking directions on the bag. Freeze up to 2 months.

When you’re ready to make the cookies, place the dough on lined cookie sheets and thaw at room temperature for 45 - 60 minutes. Bake as directed.