I hope you all love peanut butter and chocolate as much as I do.  Otherwise, you are probably like…oh no, not again!  I honestly can’t help it.  I cannot see a peanut butter and chocolate recipe and just bypass it.  Nope.  I have to bookmark it and make it immediately.  A few months back I made a similar cookie, only the peanut butter cups were buried on the inside.  As good as those were, these peanut butter surprise cookies blow those right out of the water.  The peanut butter cookie base is amazing by itself.  It is so soft and chewy.  Then it sparkles and has great texture from the sugar it is rolled in.  Warm, right from the oven, I think these taste best with the pool of melted chocolate and the warm creamy peanut butter in contrast to the chewy cookie.  But, trust me, they are still fabulous at room temperature.  Really fabulous.  Like, I can’t stop eating them, these are dangerous, fabulous.

Peanut butter surprise cookies

Yield: 36 cookies (I got 31 cookies)

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter  I used Peter Pan Honey Roasted

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup packed light-brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup granulated sugar, for rolling dough     I used vanilla bean sugar

36 mini peanut butter cups, chilled and unwrapped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using an electric mixer, cream peanut butter and butter in a mixing bowl until smooth. Add brown sugar; beat until combined, scraping down bowl as needed. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until incorporated.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. With mixer on low speed, gradually beat in flour mixture in two batches.

Scoop off dough by the tablespoon; roll into balls.  The dough is pretty soft.  Putting the dough in the fridge for 1 hour will make rolling easier.  Place granulated sugar on a plate; roll balls in sugar, coating completely. Place 2 inches apart on a nonstick insulated baking sheet.

Bake until cookies begin to puff up slightly, about 7 minutes. Remove from oven. Press one peanut butter cup in center of each cookie. Return to oven; continue baking until cookies are golden brown and chocolate has begun to melt, about 6 minutes more. Let cool at least 10 minutes on baking sheet before transferring cookies to rack to cool completely.

Source:  Martha Stewart