Chocolate Sugar Cookies

From Smitten Kitchen. For Homemade Oreos. The reverse creaming method works wonders with these cookies and makes them criminally easy to assemble.

2 1/2 c. flour
1 c. Ghiradelli Cocoa Powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 c. (or 1 3/4 c. if you’re making oreos) white sugar
1 c. + 4 TBSP. butter, room temp.
2 eggs

Mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl with paddle attachment (not the whisk!). Gently blend in butter and then egg until dough comes together. Drop by teaspoon onto cookie sheet, handroll and press flat with fingers or a cup dipped in sugar. Bake for 9 minutes (no more! no less!) at 350 degrees. Eat them plain with a glass of milk. Or make oreos. Or increase the size of the cookies (maybe a tablespoon or two) and make ice cream sandwiches. I freeze theses and keep them on hand for cravings.

For filling:

1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. shortening (like Crisco or Spectrum if you want organic)
2 c. powdered sugar
2. tsp. vanilla
Beat until fluffy, spoon into pastry piping bag. Pipe by teaspoon dollop onto every other cookie and top with another cookie.

Crave

 

Unlike Erin, my late-night craving last night for Peanut Butter Cups was NOT pregnancy-induced. Just the same, it demanded gratification.  I never eat Reese’s since they contain lots of dairy and hydrogenated garbage so it was already more than time for me to develop my own method of satisfying the timeless urge to combine peanut butter and chocolate.

Scrounging through my cupboards I found a jar of creamy peanut butter, some powdered sugar and some bittersweet chocolate chips and some random, mini candy cups leftover from Christmas baking. Perfect.

A bit about the chocolate (since I’m here), I really like Guittard  Semisweet Chocolate Chips and not just because they’re the only widely-available baking chips that don’t contain milk or butterfat. They are dark and not too sweet and they melt exquisitely and have a delicious mouth-feel.

I melted about 2/3 c. chocolate in the microwave (which is basically sacrilege in the melting chocolate world) but just until most of the chips were melted. Stir it with a spatula (no metal! plastic or silicone only!) to help the remaining chips melt.

While that was going on, I whipped up (with a fork) about 1/2 c. of peanut butter (probably less) and a couple tablespoons of powdered sugar and scooped it into a small ziplock with a corner snipped off to make a piping bag.

Clear a spot in your freezer so these can chill.

Drop some melted chocolate in the bottom of your candy cup, enough to coat the sides of the cup (all the way to the top of the cup) and to leave a slightly thick layer on the bottom. Put these in the freezer to set. Once the chocolate is matte and hardened, pull them out and pipe your preferred portion of the peanut butter mixture into the center of the cup. Cover this with more chocolate and then return to the freezer. Mine took maybe 10 minutes to set and then I could peel of the cup and devour.

I have to warn you though – these are like 1000% more rich than the store-bought version and I could barely eat one at a time. Enjoy with caution, they may put you into a peanut-y-chocolate coma.