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Loaded Peanut Butter Cookies

The cookie that has been a favorite of so many and rightfully so! Brownie cookie base, dreamy peanut butter buttercream, topped with peanut butter chocolate ganache and a few mini peanut butter cups, this cookie is delicious and a must try!
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Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Brownie Cookies:
  • 1 box Devil's Food Cake mix
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 C. vegetable oil
  • 1 T. brown sugar
Peanut Butter Dream Frosting:
  • 1 C. unsalted butter softened for 30 minutes at room temperature
  • 1/2 C. creamy peanut butter
  • 1 /2 T. vanilla
  • large pinch of salt
  • 2 1/2 C (287 grams) powdered sugar
  • 2 T.-1/4 C. heavy whipping cream start with 2 T. and add more as needed
  • 1-2 T. milk if needed for thinning
Peanut Butter Chocolate Ganache
  • 3/4 C. Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate melting wafers
  • 1/2 C. creamy peanut butter
Mini Peanut Butter Cups, cut in half

Method
 

Brownie Cookies:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with parchment paper.
  2. Whisk cake mix in a large bowl to remove clumps.
  3. Add eggs, oil and brown sugar and stir with a wood spoon or other durable spoon until smooth. Batter will be thick and shiny.
  4. Scoop walnut/1 tablespoon sized dough balls onto cookie sheets and gently press them down to make them a little flatter.
  5. Bake for 6-8 minutes depending on how fudgey you want them to be.
  6. Let cool.
Peanut Butter Dream Frosting
  1. Cream butter in stand mixer.
  2. Once butter is creamy, add peanut butter and mix until creamed together. Add in vanilla, salt, heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar slowly to combine on low, or all at one with cotton cloth held around mixer.
  3. Once everything is combined scrape bowl to make sure everything is incorporated. Increase speed to high for a few minutes I usually do 2-3 minutes. If buttercream is still thick add a tablespoon or so of milk to thin it out.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Ganache
  1. Place chocolate melts and peanut butter in a microwave proof bowl and heat in the microwave (about 1 minute). Stir until smooth.
Loaded Peanut Butter Cookies
  1. Frost cookies. I like to use a piping bag with a large closed star tip or circle tip to pipe out a circle around the cooke, leaving a small circle in the middle of the cookie and a small bit of cookie around the outside.
  2. Put about a 1/2 teaspoon or so of ganache in the middle of each frosting ring to fill. Then top with chopped peanut butter cups or whole mini peanut butter cups from Trader Joe's.
  3. If making loaded sandwich cookies, flip 2 cookies of the same size over and frost one side as described as above. Add a little more frosting to stick both cookies together well. Sandwich cookies together. Drizzle top with leftover ganache or chocolate and tiny chopped pieces of peanut butter cups. Let chocolate set.

Notes

-I usually double this recipe.  If you do the same (and you'll want to they are that good!) make sure to double the frosting too but not the ganache!