Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
These cookies are serious about peanut butter: Each has a full-size peanut butter cup tucked inside the salty-sweet peanut butter dough. As the cup bakes, the peanut butter inside softens, creating the perfect combination of crisp cookie shell, creamy center and crunchy honey-roasted topping.
- Level: Easy
- Total: 55 min (includes cooling time)
- Active: 20 min
- Yield: 12 cookies
Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray, for the muffin tin
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
Coarse sanding sugar, for rolling
12 full-size peanut butter cups
1/4 cup chopped honey-roasted peanuts
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.
- Beat the peanut butter, granulated sugar, light brown sugar and salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and egg on high until the dough comes together in a mass.
- Pour some sanding sugar in a small bowl. Form the dough into 12 balls and roll to coat in the sugar. Put a dough ball in each muffin cup. Press the dough about 1/2 inch up the sides to make a shell. Fit a peanut butter cup into each dough shell. Bake until the edges of the cookies are set and golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the tin to a cooling rack, then immediately top the peanut butter cups with a sprinkling of the peanuts. Cool 15 minutes, then remove the cookies to the wire rack to cool completely.
