Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie

By carvalhohm

We’ve been making chocolate covered cupcakes.  We make cupcakes, fill them with pastry filling or ice cream, frost them, and dip them in ganache—chocolate covered cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 1/2 1/2 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 1/2 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 1/2 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 1/4 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1 1 large egg
• 1 1 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 3/4 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 1/4 1 1/4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1 1 teaspoon baking soda

Details

Adapted from preparedpantryblog.com

Preparation

Step 1

1. Cream the butter and sugars together with the paddle attachment of your mixer. Add the salt, egg, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the peanut butter and mix.

2. Add the flour and baking soda and beat until combined.

3. Refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes to firm up slightly.

4. Divide the dough into two portions. Using wax paper, roll each portion into logs 1 1/2-inches in diameter. Refrigerate for two hours or until firm

5. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cut cookies into 3/8-inch slices. Place them on a greased baking sheet and bake 10 to 12 minutes or until the cookies just start to brown on the edges. Cool on a wire rack.

For the filling:
Make half of the ganache recipe below.  It will still yield more filling than what you need, but it won’t go to waste.  Serve it over ice cream or a dessert.

Ganache:

1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 ounces good quality chocolate, cut into pieces
4 tablespoons butter

Bring the cream just to a boil. In a medium bowl, pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is melted. Stir in the butter and vanilla. Let the ganache cool until it reaches the desired consistency.

You can make it thin and use it as sauce. You can make it thicker and use it as frosting. You can make it thicker yet, like a paste, and use it for fillings in these cookies.

By altering the ratio of whipping cream to chocolate, you can make it thin for an ice cream topping, thick like a paste for a sandwich filling between two cookies, or somewhere in between to drizzle over a cake. Light corn syrup is sometimes added to create a glaze for drizzling.