Peanut Butter Stuffed Chocolate Cookies (vegan)
These vegan peanut butter stuffed chocolate cookies are the ultimate decadent treat! Soft, chewy dark chocolate cookies hide a rich, gooey peanut butter centre, you won't be able to stop at just one!
Servings 12 cookies
Ingredients
- 130 g (½ cup) thick, creamy peanut butter (NOT natural)* (either smooth or chunky is fine)
- 115 g (½ cup) vegan block butter slightly softened
- 120 g (½ cup + 2 Tablespoons) light brown soft sugar
- 50 g (¼ cup) caster or granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use soy)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 40 g (5 Tablespoons) cocoa powder
- 160 g (1 + ⅓ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 140 g (5 oz/¾ cup) dark chocolate roughly chopped (or chocolate chips)
Instructions
- Line a small tray with baking paper. Divide the peanut butter into 12, approx 11g per portion, and shape them into rough balls, they don't need to be perfectly neat. If it is feeling too soft to shape, chill the peanut butter in the freezer briefly to firm it up.130 g (½ cup) thick, creamy peanut butter (NOT natural)*
- Place the peanut butter balls spaced apart on the lined tray and place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes while you prepare the cookie dough.
- To make the cookie dough, cream together the butter and light brown soft and caster sugars with an electric mixer until smooth.115 g (½ cup) vegan block butter, 120 g (½ cup + 2 Tablespoons) light brown soft sugar, 50 g (¼ cup) caster or granulated sugar
- Add the milk, vanilla extract, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder and beat again until smooth.2 Tablespoons unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use soy), 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ¼ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), 40 g (5 Tablespoons) cocoa powder
- Add the flour and stir until no dry patches remain. Stir in most of the chocolate, reserving a handful to top the cookies with. Cover and place the bowl in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.160 g (1 + ⅓ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour, 140 g (5 oz/¾ cup) dark chocolate
- While the dough is chilling preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4 and line two baking sheets with baking paper.
- Divide the dough into 12 even pieces (use a scale for accuracy), shape them into balls then use your thumbs to make a deep indentation in the middle.
- Place one of the frozen peanut butter balls in each indentation. Use your hands to mould the cookie dough around the peanut butter, fully encasing it, there should be no peanut butter showing through.
- Place the balls of dough well spaced apart on the lined baking sheets. Press a few pieces of the reserved chocolate on top of each one but do not flatten the balls.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until they are just firm around the edges but still soft in the middle (they will firm up more upon cooling).
- If you prefer flatter cookies, bash the tray on the countertop a couple of times to flatten them out. Leave the cookies to cool on the tray for ten minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- See post above for tips, details and step-by-step photos.
- *It is imperative that you use a thick, creamy peanut butter NOT a natural one, ie it should contain added palm oil to make it thick. Natural peanut butter contains 100% peanuts and is far too runny in this case. I do not add anything to the peanut butter filling to avoid making the cookies overly sweet, which means that the peanut butter needs to be thick enough on it's own to shape into balls. Either smooth or crunchy is fine, as long as it is thick! I use Whole Earth smooth.
- For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend weighing your ingredients using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them. A gram is always a gram, but a cup won’t always measure out the same amount.