Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I'm going to start this post off with a giant thank you to my favorite taste testers - you know who you are.  Tuesday is treat day for you and I found this recipe and knew you guys would love it.  I mean who wouldn't love a chocolate cookie with mini peanut butter cups in them?!  And as one of you puts it, chocolate and peanut butter are "2 things that just go together".  :) 

I read over the recipe and it seemed easy enough - all I needed was a bag of mini peanut butter cups.  I changed a couple of things up in the recipe and was ready to get going with it.  Make sure that when you add in the peanut butter cups to stir them in by hand.  If you do it with a mixer, a lot of them get broken.  Clearly, I used the mixer - they came out just fine - a little crushed here and there.  But if that doesn't matter to you then the mixer works just fine.  These don't expand a lot during the baking time, so if you want to try to squeeze more on a sheet at a time you can.  Scoop out the dough........

ready to bake :)

.....bake them off and 7-9 minutes later you have these. 

yum

Let me tell you - these smell so good while baking.  It even says in the directions to "bake them until they're set and you can smell chocolate".  It's true - once you smell it, they are done. 

I happily handed these out for Tuesday Treat day.  Needless to say they went over very well. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

makes about 30 cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

2 tbsp milk

1 1/2 cups (9 oz) mini peanut butter cups

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.  In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat together both sugars and butter until light and fluffy.  Beat in the vanilla, egg and milk.  Then add in dry ingredients.  Stir in the peanut butter cups.
3. Scoop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough onto prepared cookie sheets.  Bake cookies for 7-9 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through, until they're set and you can smell chocolate.  Remove them from the oven and cool on cooling rack.