Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies

5 from 5 votes

These peanut butter brownie cookies are rich, fudgy and filled with peanut butter! They are chocolatey, rich and delicious.

Prep Time30

Cook Time12

Course: Cookies, Desserts

Cuisine: American

Diet: Vegetarian

Servings: cookies

Calories: 334kcal

Author: Natalie

Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
5 ounces dark chocolate chopped
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chopped
1 cup all purpose flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar packed
2½ teaspoons vanilla
2 large eggs room temperature
½ cups chocolate chips semi-sweet or dark
flaky sea salt for sprinkling

Peanut Butter Filling

½ cup peanut butter
3 tablespoons butter softened
6 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 pinch salt

Instructions

Peanut Butter Filling

In a medium sized bowl, stir together the peanut butter, softened butter, powdered sugar and salt. Mixture will be sticky, but you should be able to form it into balls. If it's too sticky or liquidy, place it in the fridge or freezer for about 20 minutes until it becomes thicker and easier to work with.
Form 17 balls the size of 1 teaspoon and place them on a small wax paper lined baking sheet. Place the balls in the fridge while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Chilling the peanut butter balls will make them easier to work with.

Brownie Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Remove pan from the heat. Add the dark and semisweet chopped chocolate and stir until it's melted and combined. Set aside to cool slightly.
In a medium sized bowl, whisk to combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a handheld mixer on medium high speed, mix the eggs, sugars and vanilla for 5 minutes, until mixture thickens.
With the mixer on low speed, pour in the melted chocolate-butter mixture and mix until combined and smooth. Remove bowl from mixer stand and use a spatula gently fold in the dry ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix. Add in the chocolate chips.
Fill an ice cream scoop half way with batter. Place one peanut butter mixture ball in the scoop and fill the rest of the scoop with cookie dough. Drop the cookies onto the cookie sheet. Place them 3″ apart. Return peanut butter balls to the fridge or freezer until you're ready to form next tray of cookie dough balls.
Sprinkle the cookies with flaky sea salt and bake 10-12 minutes until the center is just set. Let cool on the baking sheet for 10-15 minutes before then transferring them to a rack to cool.

Notes

Chocolate: Use baking chocolate bars found in the baking aisle of the grocery store. I like to use a mixture of dark chocolate and semi-sweet.

Peanut butter: Use creamy peanut butter such as Skippy or Jif. I wouldn't recommend using natural peanut butter for this recipe.

Butter: Use room temperature butter for the cookie dough. Use softened butter for the peanut butter filling. For the peanut butter filling, place the butter in a small bowl and microwave it for a few seconds. You want the butter to be softened to the point that it's easy to stir and mix in with the powdered sugar.

Peanut butter filling: Freeze filling or store it in the refrigerator until it is thick enough to form into balls, about 20 minutes. Keep peanut butter balls in the refrigerator or freezer until you are ready to form cookie dough balls. Place peanut butter filling in fridge or freezer while the first tray of cookies bake.

Cookie size: I usually use an ice cream scoop to form the cookies. This results in large cookies. You can make these cookies smaller. If you use a smaller cookie scoop, reduce baking time by a few minutes.

Storage: Store leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 6 days.

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