Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

These cookies are one of my go-to recipes. I found them during my vegan days and made them frequently, as I love the peanut butter/chocolate combo and most commercial products (Reese's, M&Ms, etc.) are not vegan. But these are a great substitute. The chocolate cookie is flavorful and soft, and the filling really does taste like a peanut butter cup. Definitely a crowd-pleaser.

I made a batch last week to take to my sister's surprise party. She's not really a cake person (hard to believe, as a blood relative of mine), so I usually make her cookies or some other confection for a birthday treat. The surprise was successful, and I had a great time playing Bunco and catching up with friends (but sadly failed to take a single picture).

But back to the cookies. They don't have too many ingredients and they bake for less than 10 minutes, so it's pretty easy to whip them up.

Mix up your dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then cream the Earth Balance (or margarine/butter, if you're into that kind of thing), sugar, brown sugar, and peanut butter:

Nice and smooth.

Then we add our dry ingredients and get that nice chocolate-y dough:

It may have an almost grainy consistency at this point, but that's OK.

Make your filling, then roll it into small balls (or large balls, baker's choice. But smaller ones are easier to cover). Make some bigger balls with the chocolate dough.

Note: Use brand-name peanut butter. I'm not usually very brand-loyal, but I used the grocery-store brand it was oily as fuq. Hence the glistening hands.

Make your large ball into a patty, then place ball of filling in the center.

Truly professional cooks store their cookie filling atop a baking soda box. Pro tip.

Fold the edges in to cover the filling and roll between your palms to smooth it out.

Fold those edges in until you have what resembles a chocolate clamshell.

I like to flatten the cookies a bit before baking, because they don't really spread much on their own.

I'm sure there's a tool for flattening cookies, but I find a glass works just fine.

Bake for 7-8 minutes and voilà, cookie central.

The finished product. You can see flecks of filling peeking out.

I usually just call these peanut butter chocolate cookies. I actually thought I was using the Peanut Butter Pillows recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, but the ingredient lists are different and I cannot find a link that has the recipe as I wrote it down. So we shall call them Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies, since I took them to a surprise party and the cookie itself contains a surprise peanut-butter center. Without further blathering, here is the recipe:

Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

Dough:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 egg replacer units (I use Ener-G)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup vegan margarine (I use Earth Balance)
1 tsp. vanilla

Filling:
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar

Combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda in a medium bowl. In large bowl, beat sugar, brown sugar, margarine and peanut butter until fluffy. Add vanilla and egg replacer, beat well. Add in flour mixture gradually until blended, and set aside. In small bowl, combine filling ingredients and blend well. Roll into 30 balls. Wrap balls in dough mixture. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes or until cookies are slightly cracked. Makes 30.