We are gathered here today to celebrate the union between two favorite things: peanut butter and ultra-soft, frosted cookies. Too often, peanut butter cookies are dry and crumbly. These Cutler’s Chocolate Frosted Peanut Butter Cookies are on the opposite end of the dry/moist spectrum than your normal pb cookie; the cookie itself is incredibly soft and moist. In fact, you could stop at the cookie and not even bother with the frostings, especially if you’re prone to perceiving desserts as being too sweet. If your cookies make it to the frosting stage without being eaten, though, the double-layer is a fun and unique addition. No one within the walls of where these cookies lie will be able to resist sinking their teeth into them.
The kids glued a peanut onto a popsicle stick, gave him a face, called him “Neville Longbottom,” and had him randomly appear in different places in the kitchen on this (apparently) boring afternoon. Weirdos.
A soft, simple dough with Reese’s chips is what makes these so moist:
Tip (unsponsored): This recipe calls for cake flour, which we find at Wal-mart by the regular flour:
If you’re imagining sickly-sweet frostings here, rest assured that they’re more on the light and whippy side. Have your kids help you dump ingredients and frost. We find that a small off-set spatula is our #1 tool for frosting pretty much everything.
Don’t these look more interesting than your average peanut butter cookie?
For whatever reason, Utah seems to have the whole ultra-soft-cookie thing down. It feels like there’s a drive-through offering cookie perfection on every other block. Some claim that Sodalicious dominates the cookie market, others say that Swig is where one will reach cookie nirvana. We just find it amusing that the LDS community (that includes us here at The Amiable Cooks) has adopted soda as their poison of choice; like many who frequent Starbucks or bars, the LDS can indulge in their own addictive tendencies by requesting such concoctions as a “dirty diet coke” from a mixologist of a different kind. But, we digress. These particular cookies hail from Cutler’s, which is a cookie and sandwich shop in Utah.
From: Cutler’s Peanut Butter Cookies . Just search their blog for “peanut butter cookies.”
- For the cookies:
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 3¼ cups cake flour (again if using all purpose flour, start with ¼ cup less and check for stickiness)
- 1- 12 oz bag Reese's Peanut Butter chips (no substitutions)
- For the peanut butter frosting:
- ½ cup butter, soft-room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ½ cup peanut butter (not natural)
- milk to thin to proper consistency (whole milk is best)
- For the chocolate frosting:
- 1 cup butter or ½ and ½ blend butter/margarine
- 5-6 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa (or less if you like a lighter cocoa frosting)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- ¼ to ⅓ cup milk
- For the cookies:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in center of oven.
- Cream together butter, sugars, salt, baking soda and powder (TAC note: do this for about 4 minutes). Add vanilla and eggs. Mix well.
- Add flour and peanut butter chips. Mix just until flour and chips are blended together.
- Using a cookie scoop or ice cream scoop, or just a large spoon, scoop into 2 inch balls and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet about 4 inches apart.
- Bake for about 9-12 minutes, or until set.
- For the peanut butter frosting:
- Cream together room-temperature butter and powdered sugar. Add peanut butter and beat until smooth. Add milk a tablespoon at time, just until frosting is smooth and creamy. Set aside.
- For the chocolate frosting:
- Cream butter and 5 cups powdered sugar. Add cocoa and vanilla. Add milk a tablespoon at a time until frosting is smooth. If needed, add more powdered sugar.
- After cookies are cooled, frost with peanut butter frosting. Then frost on top of the peanut butter frosting with the chocolate frosting. When spreading the chocolate frosting on top of the peanut butter frosting, be very gentle and leave a small space between the edge of the peanut butter frosting and the chocolate frosting for a layered frosting look.
