Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies with Milk Chocolate Filling

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies with Milk Chocolate Filling ~ A twofer cookie for those of you who love chocolate and peanut butter.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies with Milk Chocolate Filling

For our house, these cookies will be pulling double duty as a twofer and as welcome-home cookies for Matt.

As many of you know I’m an obsessive baker but lately my husband hasn’t been feeling well and finally ended up in the hospital. Needless to say, I was too worried, pre-occupied and tired to focus on baking.

Am I complaining? Not yet . . . and not really? Let’s play semantics and call it a gripe because the only person who can complain is Matt. Up until a day ago he has been doubled over in pain and throwing up from pain medication that seemed to have little to no effect other than causing nausea. 

So here’s the gripe-I know there’s protocol and time cycles that pain medication can be administered, but really  Dear Nurse, please don’t sigh or tell me with exasperation that he just had a shot as if he is an addict. Nursing is a caring profession, at least that’s my expectation, and so I get a little offended when I feel like my husband’s needs are being dismissed. At least politely tell me when his next dosage is, so I can provide the man something to look forward to rather than letting him wonder how much longer he has to endure the wretchedness.

I am glad to say, day four and the pain is now finally under control  and he may be home tomorrow with surgery scheduled for next week.

Thanks goodness for that, as both his boys, Blake, his son from a previous marriage; Cole, our son, miss their father dearly.

Until then, how do you distract a three year old who wants to jailbreak his dad from the hospital and explains it by saying, “He doesn’t need a doctor just bring Daddy home and I will take care of him”, you distract him.

So after finishing a get well card, we decided to make these “welcome home” cookies. While those were baking, Cole and I prepped and armed his Lego soldiers and Batman characters for an epic battle of good guys vs. bad guys, a game that he explains is daddy’s favorite.

As for a review of the cookie, I’m going with the words of my lil guy, “I love these”. Since I can’t attest to the taste because I’m allergic to peanut butter, I can attest to the fact that every other recipe I have made from Karen Demasco’s book The Craft of Baking, has turned out great and delicious so I think it’s safe to say this one did as well.

A few notes:

• Although easy to make, these do take some time as they bake best one sheet at a time and need to be completely cooled before filling.
• Use creamy peanut butter not chunky.
• Follow the directions and let the cookies cool on the pan. Don’t skip this part or your cookies will become concave.
• The original recipe calls for the dough to be rolled between your hands to form a ball, but since I was making these with a three-year-old, it was much easier to squeeze dollops of dough through a pastry bag. This seemed to work out just fine.
• Filled cookies can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator of up to 3 days.
• Cookies can be kept unfilled in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies with Milk Chocolate Filling

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line bake sheet with parchment.

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter Cookie:

• 1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 6 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature
• ½ cup plus tablespoon lightly packed dark brown sugar
• ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon confectioner sugar
• ½ cup creamy peanut butter
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg

Filling:

• 6 oz. milk chocolate
• ½ cup creamy peanut butter
• ¼ confectioner sugar
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¾ cup heavy cream

Instructions:

Peanut Butter Cookie:

1. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat  butter, brown sugar and confectioner sugar on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy, about  2minutes. Add the peanut butter and beat to combine. With the mixer speed on low, slowly add oil, vanilla, and egg, beat until combined, about 20 seconds. Add flour mixture, beat until just combined..
3. Place dough into a pastry bag. Pipe ½ inch dollops onto parchment keeping dollops 1 inch apart. Bake at 350 degrees F one sheet at a time. Remove the from oven and transfer to a wire rack. Allow cookies to cool on the pan completely.

Filling:

1. Combine chocolate, peanut butter, confectioner sugar and salt in a bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Remove cream from heat and pour over chocolate mixture. Stir until chocolate is melted. Set bowl in an ice bath or chill in refrigerator, until filling has cooled to room temperature and is thick enough to spread. Use immediately or store in an air tight container and refrigerate for up to a week.

Adapted from Karen Damasco, The Craft of Baking