Peanut Butter Cup Surprises--I Copied an Amazing Baker--Jenny from Picky Palate

When I saw these, I knew they would be a treat I would have to make--and soon.  So I made them for a yummy treat for Family Home Evening on Monday.  (You can read more about Family Home Evening here--but in short, we set aside every Monday night to do things together as a family, we have a gospel lesson--short and sweet for kids attention, we have some type of activity and we have a treat.  It is usually always fun!)

Back to these "treats".  Take a look at Jenny's on the link above.  Her creations and goodies are always so amazing, well done and look great.  Mine always just look so-so, but they still taste GREAT!  (And how cute is this plate I found at Target!)

So here's the deal.  Or I guess, the recipe:

Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Cookies, adapted slightly from Jenny at Picky Palate

1 cup peanut butter (I used 1/4 cup creamy and 3/4 cup crunchy, because that is what I had)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, unwrapped

about 1 cup mini marshmallows

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

2-3 tablespoons heavy cream (I used 3 T. and wish I would have used a little more to make the topping a little more ganache like, mine was a bit thick.)

Candy toppings of your choice (sprinkles would be fun, m&m's and you can see in the picture I topped some with the new Hershey's Kisses I found that look like candy corn and taste like pretty good white chocolate!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, sugar and egg.  (I did this with just a spoon, you don't need a mixer.)  Spray the muffin cups well with cooking spray!  Scoop the dough in even amounts in mini muffins pan.  (Jenny made 12, I got 19 from mine.)  I filled each muffin cup pretty much to the top.  Bake for 13-15 minutes until almost done, remove from oven and press a peanut butter cup into the center of each cookie until it is level with the cookie top.  Then top each cookie with 3-4 marshmallows and return to the oven for 2-3 more minutes until mallows are puffed.  Remove from oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, place chocolate chips in microwave safe bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals until melted and smooth.  Stir in 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream until silky and smooth.  (If it thickens too quickly, return to microwave to thin it out again for 15 seconds or so.)   Spoon chocolate over top of cookie and sprinkle or dot with candy. 

  

Just for kicks, I stuck some frozen chocolate chip cookie dough (instead of the pb cup) in a few of these.  They came out with a yummy, gooey cookie dough middle.  I kind of liked these as they contrasted a pb cookie a bit.  And hello, it's cookie dough!

I didn't have mini M&M's, but did have the regular ones, they would be cuter with the smaller ones.  Sprinkles would be cute, too!  These are rich and peanut buttery (duh!) and chocolatey and gooey and sticky and well, yummy!  You gotta try these.  They are super easy, too.  Kids would have fun helping with these as well.

I think these Hershey's Kisses are cute and fun and can't wait to see what else I can do with them! ;)   Hmmm, any ideas?

Another yummy cookie to post--on another day and this one is healthy--it doesn't even have sugar!  Gotta get this weary head in bed!