Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

It has been snowing. Therefore, I have been baking. And baking. And baking. It's a sickness. I am working on it. But my ridiculous use of flour absolutely works to your advantage, because I can share this recipe with you!!! See? I am always thinking of others.

You will need:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 3/4 cup peanut butter (creamy, not crunchy)
  
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 and 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate chips)
• 1 bag of Reese's Miniature Peanut Butter Cups, cut into fourths
  

The first thing I did was cut the Reese's cups into fourths and then popped them into the freezer so that they wouldn't fall apart later when I was mixing them into the dough. You don't have to do this, but I thought it was helpful.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the softened butter, white and brown sugar and the peanut butter until smooth. Add the eggs in one at a time and mix until completely incorporated. Add the vanilla and mix until blended. In a smaller bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and baking soda. Gradually add to the butter mixture. Do not overmix.

By hand, add in the chocolate chips and peanut butter cups. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is well combined.

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Once these are baked, you will have to give them a minute or two on the cookie sheet before you can move them.

And there you go. Perfect peanut butter chocolate cookies. I baked 2 dozen of them and then rolled the remaining dough into balls and froze them for another day. These are perfect for freezing.

I have been organizing and cleaning along with all of the baking and am super excited about all of the scrapbooking supplies that I have unearthed and organized. I found stuff still in boxes that I had never even opened after the mailman delivered it. :yikes: But now that all is neat and clean, I am ready to share it with you! Check back for a fun giveaway!! Happy Thursday!