Chocolate & peanut butter sandwich cookies.

Even though I've got this blog to keep track of the all the recipes I've made, I still hand write them all into a recipe book. Just in case.
I like the idea of having this hard copy of recipes. I like the idea of being able to hand this recipe book down to my children, or children's children. I have this somewhat romantic idea because my dad has a recipe book just like that. An old, hand written, taped-together at the seams recipe book that must have been handed down to him through the generations.

Stuffed into my recipe book are torn-out pages from cooking magazines. I haven't even cooked anything from most of these torn-out pages, but I keep them there for future reference. I don't think this 'future' will  ever come, though, because when I want to cook something I usually look on the net, rather than sifting through these neglected sheets of paper.



But the other day, I was looking for something specific - a chocolate and peanut butter biscuit that didn't have any eggs in it - and the internet couldn't give me what I wanted. So for once, I rifled through these loose pages and found what I was looking for: Bitter chocolate and espresso sandwich cookies from an old Gourmet Traveller magazine. I changed the espresso filling to a peanut butter filling, but the recipe is basically the same.


I'm gonna go right ahead and say that these biscuits are kinda like peanut butter oreos. The chocolate biscuits are crunchy and not too sweet and almost a little bit salty (because I used salted butter). The peanut butter filling is sticky and peanut-y and delicious.
It's a good combination. When you bite into them, the peanut icing squishes out the sides. I like that.
I didn't bake my chocolate biscuits for long enough, so they were still a bit soft in the middle, but it wasn't a problem. They were still much too easy to eat. In fact, I think I'll have another one right now...




Chocolate & peanut butter sandwich cookies:
Adapted from Gourmet Traveller magazine (date unknown).
Makes 12 filled biscuits


85g softened butter
110g caster sugar

100g plain flour
37g cocoa powder
3 tbsp milk (you may not need any or all of this)

Preheat oven to 190C, and line two baking trays.
Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy.
Stir in the flour and cocoa until combined. If it doesn't quite come together, or looks like breadcrumbs, add a teaspoon of milk at a time until the dough comes together.
Turn the dough out onto a flour board and knead until smooth.
Roll the dough out until 2-3 mm thick, and cut out with a round cookie cutter. 

Place the dough circles onto the lined trays. 

Repeat this process with the dough scraps. 

Prick the dough circles with a fork, and crimp the edges.
Bake for 10 minutes. Let cookies cool on trays for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool.

Peanut butter filling:
200g icing sugar
6-7 tbsp smooth peanut butter
1/2 tsp salt

Beat all ingredients until smooth. Taste and add more peanut butter/salt until you reach the right consistency and taste.
Ice on biscuit and sandwich together with an un-iced biscuit. Repeat until all biscuits are sandwiched together

Peanut-butter choc-chip cream-cheese cookies.

I'm going through a cookie phase.

I've mentioned before that I go through phases of liking things. Lucky for everyone around me, it's a phase they can all appreciate.



And besides, if you give freshly baked cookies to your friends, they like you more.

Or so I've heard.

Especially when the cookies are full of dark chocolate and peanut butter. I don't think I need to tell you how good this combination is. I'm sure you know it already. But if you don't, you should make some of these.

I think they'll even turn the least-peanut-butter-liking person into a peanut-butter-liking person. Truth.

I changed the original recipe a bit. I know, I'm a rebel.

I swapped butter for cream cheese because I wanted to use some left over cream cheese that I had. I wasn't sure how it would work, but it worked great. You could taste the cream cheese before the cookies were cooked, but after, I couldn't really taste it.

I used half a block of dark chocolate, chopped up so that some bits were really big and chunky and some bits were really small. They were also great.

I've also changed all the measurements into weights, rather than cups. Because it makes less washing up for me, and lets face it, that's a good thing.

Peanut-Butter Choc-Chip Cream-Cheese Cookies.
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Makes about 28 cookies


110g (4oz) cream cheese
1 cup peanut butter (8oz)
250g (8oz) sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
150g (5oz) plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup dark chocolate, chopped (about half a block)

Preheat oven to 175C. Line two baking trays.
Beat cream cheese and peanut butter in a large bowl. Beat until smooth.
Mix in sugar.
Add egg and mix well.
Beat in milk and vanilla, followed by dry ingredients.
Fold in the chopped chocolate.
Roll tbsp sized balls of batter and place on lined trays. (Optional: You can roll these balls in sugar before baking them. I found this unnecessary).
Flatten the balls down slightly and bake for 10-12 mins. They'll be quite soft still when they come out of the oven, but you don't want to overcook them.