Peanut butter cup cookies are also known as peanut butter temptations. I think the name has something to do with them being so good that you are always tempted to have another. These are definitely cookies for peanut butter lovers.
Peanut butter cup cookies are soft and chewy peanut butter cookies with Miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups pushed into the center of each cookie.
The cookie is baked in a mini muffin tin so that the shape of the cookie is similar to a tart. It’s the perfect shape to hold a peanut butter cup.
Making peanut butter cup cookies is a fun recipe for kids to take part in. They can help you push the peanut butter cups into the center of each cookie.
(Place your wrapped peanut butter cups into the freezer for 10 minutes before you unwrap them to prevent the chocolate from melting while you remove the wrappers.)
Preheat your oven to 375º Fahrenheit.
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt over a medium-sized bowl. This will help disperse the dry ingredients and break up any clumps.
Place the unwrapped peanut butter cups into the freezer. This will allow them to harden up before you place them into the hot peanut butter cookies.
Use a fork or a whisk to evenly mix the ingredients together.
Place the softened butter, sugars, and peanut butter into a large mixing bowl.
If you have a stand mixer, attach the paddle attachment, and beat everything together until it is all creamed and fluffy.
Add in the milk, vanilla, and egg.
Continue beating until everything has become fully incorporated.
Add the flour in a few batches, mixing well between each addition.
Here is a picture of the finished peanut butter cookie dough.
Use a tablespoon measure to scoop up some of the dough. Roll the dough between your palms to make a ball. (If you find that the dough is too sticky, or too hard to roll, place the mixing bowl containing all the dough in the fridge for 10 minutes.) You want the balls of dough to be the size shown in the photo. If they are larger than that, remove some of the dough and re-roll. Place the balls of dough into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
Place the mini muffin pan into the oven for 8 minutes at 375º Fahrenheit. You do not want to cook them any longer than this as you want them to be soft enough to be able to easily press the peanut butter cups into the cookie. They might not look like they are done, but they are.
This is what the peanut butter cookies look like right out of the oven.
Remove the Miniature Reese's Peanut Butter Cups from the freezer and quickly press them into the center of the cookies until the top of the peanut butter cups are even with the tops of the cookies. If possible, have someone help you so that you can get done faster. This will reduce the amount of chocolate that melts.
Immediately place the mini muffin pan into the freezer on a flat shelf with a trivet or hot pad between the hot pan and the plastic shelf. Allow the pan to sit for 5-10 minutes or until the peanut butter cups harden. You can check to see if they are ready by gently shaking the pan and looking to see if the tops of the peanut butter cups jiggle at all. When the chocolate no longer jiggles, remove the pan from the freezer.
Once the chocolate has set, remove the mini muffin pan from the freezer. Wash your hands. To remove the cookies, gently apply pressure along the top rim of each cookie and rotate the cookie from side to side. This will loosen the cookie from the pan. If the cookie has a bit of a ridge that extends beyond the muffin pan you should be able to easily pop it out of the pan. If the cookie is flush with the pan or below it, use the point of a steak knife to pry them out. They should come out very easily if you were able to rotate them. Repeat until all the peanut butter cup cookies have been removed from the mini muffin tin.
Repeat the last 5 steps with the remaining dough to bake the rest of the Reese's peanut butter cup cookies.
