Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies

These are probably my favorite cookies. However, they take the longest to make. If anyone is interested in making these, make sure you don't have anything going on for a couple of hours! Anyway, I've been making a lot of these recently... for Michael's students, my brother, friends, etc. I think I am going to be done with these for a while. I will admit, though, that these are not my recipe. I use this one. I have a cookbook with the same cookies in them but have way more ingredients. I highly recommend the one I use. The recipe I am posting is double the original recipe. Makes around 50 cookies.

Ingredients:

3 c. unbleached all-purpose flour

1 c. cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 c. margarine, at room temperature

1 c. sugar

1 c. packed brown sugar

1/2 c. soy milk

1 c. powdered sugar

1 c. peanut butter

chocolate chips (as many as you like)

Instructions:

- Mix the first three ingredients in a bowl.

- Using a hand or stand mixer, mix the margarine, sugars, and soy milk. After this is smooth looking and all mixed, use a spoon to slowly incorporate the dry ingredients.

- In a small bowl, mix the powdered sugar, peanut butter, and chocolate chips. I find it's easiest using my hands for this. This mixture will be your filling.

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

- I didn't have parchment paper so I just greased up my counters for this next part. I flattened a small ball of the chocolate dough so it's about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Place a nickel size ball of the peanut butter mixture on top of your chocolate disc.

- Flatten this with the palm of your hand. Place another chocolate disc on top of this and use your fingers to seal in the edges. This sounds more complicated than it is -- you'll get the hang of it quickly.

- Place on greased cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes (I always took mine out at exactly 9 minutes). Let sit for a minute on the cookie sheet and place on cooling rack.

- Don't bother to wait until these are cooled to eat them... I sure didn't! The gooeyness of the peanut butter and chocolate chips is perfectly delicious.

Make sure to take these to a party or potluck -- they have always been a huge hit for me. Even though they take a while to make, they're totally worth it. It's also fun not to tell anyone what's in them (unless, of course, they're allergic to peanuts!). Seeing a person's face after they bite into these bad boys is priceless.

Yum.