Perfect Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
If you love peanut butter, you probably have a nostalgic thing for Nutter Butters, you know, the crunchy, peanut-shaped cookies that are filled with peanut butter creme? I know I do. Well, these Perfect Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies are like Nutter Butters on steroids--about a billion times better!! Not only do you get two intensely peanut buttery-tasting, chewy cookies, but you also get a creamy, dreamy, silky smooth peanut butter filling that blows any store-bought cookie away! If you're a peanut butter lover or you know someone who is, you've got to try these cookies!
If you've been following the blog for a while, my present to one of my sisters for her birthday last year was a new and different dessert every month and this is the second in the installment. She is one of those aforementioned peanut butter lovers and I know that everyone at her house (even my mom, who was there when I dropped these off and is cursing me a little because she's on a diet and was trying to be careful and couldn't help herself because peanut butter is one of her absolute favorite foods too) adored these! We kept a few here at our house (ahem, baker's prerogative) and they were devoured within hours of baking--they're just so exactly what you want them to be!
And these are not difficult to make at all--you start by creaming butter and a generous amount of smooth peanut butter together.
Once your dough is mixed, you scoop little balls onto lined cookie sheets and press down with the tines of a fork to flatten out the cookies a bit.
Here's how they bake up--large, golden brown and delightfully chewy! Now, you could just leave them as is and they would be amazing, but who are we kidding, who can resist that irresistible peanut butter filling!
Once you slather it across a cookie, you sandwich it together with another, sneaking little swipes of filling as you go, till you've got the perfect cookie sandwich (hence the name)!! The combination of the chewy peanutty cookies and the satiny smooth peanut butter filling just can't be beat! It's like a peanut butter explosion in your mouth and even though these are fairly large, it will take extreme willpower to stop at one! As predicted (c'mon, you knew it was coming) you'll go nuts for them!!
Perfect Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
Makes about 12-14 large sandwiches
Prep Time for Cookies: 15 minutes; Bake Time: 15-17 minutes; Prep Time for Filling: 10 minutes; Assembly Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 2 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temperature
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter (don't use the natural kind--I used Skippy)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Filling
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
The Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together and set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and peanut butter together on medium-high speed until well combined. Add both the sugars and mix well until light and fluffy.
4. Add the egg and beat briefly, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Add the vanilla and mix well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again. Add the sifted dry ingredients and keep the mixer on low. Mix till completely combined, scraping down the bowl as necessary.
5. Use an ice cream scoop or a spoon to drop 24-26 equal sized balls of dough onto the prepared sheets, spacing them at least 1 1/2 inches apart. Use the tines of a fork to make cross hatches on the cookies, pressing down to flatten them a bit.
6. Bake for 15-17 minutes, reversing the sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking process. Cookies are done when they're lightly golden brown around the edges. Don't over bake because you want them to be slightly chewy. Remove the trays from the oven and transfer to wire racks to allow cookies to cool completely.
7. While cookies are cooling, you can prepare the filling. Use an electric mixer to cream together the peanut butter and butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add the confectioners' sugar and turn the mixer down to low speed. Mix well until totally combined, scraping down the bowl as you go. Still on low speed, slowly add in the cream. Once cream is all added in, gradually turn up the speed and beat the mixture well until it's smooth and creamy.
8. When cookies are completely cool, slather about 2 tablespoons of the filling on half of the cookies and top with an unfrosted one. Slightly press down so the filling comes out to the edges. Serve immediately.
9. Cookies keep at room temperature in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
Enjoy!
Note: Recipe adapted from Butter Baked Goods by Rosie Daykin.
