Peanut Butter Stuffed Chocolate Cookies

Crispy on the edges, chewy & gooey in the middle, the perfect salty & sweet balance with that gorgeous surprise centre of creamy peanut butter, such a good combo. 

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Looking for more cookie recipes? What about White chocolate raspberry pistachio cookies or The OG chocolate chip cookies?

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Tips for making the best cookies

Do not skip on salt and vanilla - It doesn’t sound like much of an addition, but it makes all the difference in your final bake. DO NOT SKIP on these key ingredients! They are the key to that perfect balance in flavours

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Get a good quality and smooth peanut butter - You don’t want that centre to be grainy and you do want a good nutty flavour, so opt for a good quality smooth peanut butter. Preferably not an all-natural one, as these tend to be too soft to stuff cookies with

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Do not overmix your batter - Overmixing your batter will cause your cookies to spread out too thinly in the oven, giving you a flatter and crispier cookie

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Chill your cookie dough before baking - This sounds excessive but allowing your cookie dough to chill in the fridge for a few hours before baking allows for the flavours to settle in and for the butter to harden again. Once you bake your chilled dough, you will get the perfect height and spread of your dough. Not chilling the dough makes the cookies spread too much in the oven and they just won’t have the same intensity of flavour

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Do not overbake - When these cookies come out of the oven, they look slightly underbaked. However, cookies always continue to cook once they are out of the oven. Usually, a cookie will take up to 20 minutes after it has been taken out of the oven to be entirely done cooking, chilling, setting and being ready to eat. 

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Allow your cookies to cool completely - Due to the above, not allowing your cookies to cool properly will halt the final stages of their cooking process and leave you with underbaked cookies. I know it’s hard, but let your cookies rest for at least 20 minutes before digging in!

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How do you stuff your cookies? 

I prefer freezing my filling in portions before stuffing the cookies. This will allow the mixture to stiffen up and makes it easier to handle once you get to the stuffing part. 

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Can you freeze these cookies?

Absolutely! I would recommend freezing to pre-scoop your dough into cookie dough balls and place them in a ziplock freezer-safe bag. These stay fresh for up to 3 months in the freezer and you can basically bake them on demand! Frozen cookie dough balls will create a slightly thicker cookie but definitely just as tasty. Either allow your cookie dough to come to room temperature (about 30 ish minutes) and bake according to instructions, or bake a bit longer directly from frozen. Just look for those crispy edges & gooey middle to take them out of the oven. 

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How to store these peanut butter chocolate cookies

These cookies are definitely at their best on the day they are baked. I would not recommend baking these cookies ahead of time as they tend to go slightly stale after 2 days. You can keep them ‘fresh’ in an airtight container for up to 3 days. However, I would recommend baking and consuming them on the same day or within 2 days. 

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Because of this, I highly recommend keeping your freezer stocked with this cookie dough so you can simply bake them on demand.

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Baking time and oven temperature

Baking time and oven temperature may vary depending on the oven you are using.  All oven temperatures in my recipes are based on a conventional oven. If you bake with a fan-assisted oven, turn down the temperature slightly as these ovens tend to become hotter than a conventional oven at that temperature setting. Ovens have the tendency to deviate from the temperature you set the oven to. I would highly recommend using an oven thermometer to ensure the inside of your oven is at the right temperature. My oven for example only goes up to 160C even though I turn it up to 230C 

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An oven that is too hot may result in an overbaked or burnt bake and an oven that is too cold may result in underbaked and soggy bakes. Having the thermometer will not only help in getting the right temperature but also helps in determining the right baking time. 

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Enjoy loves! xx

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