The Wimpy Vegetarian

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Peanut Butter – Chocolate Drops Cookies

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Little peanut butter – chocolate drops cookies that sings CHOCOLATE – with peanut butter mixed in for the kid in all of us.

Melt-in-your-mouth chocolate peanut butter drops.

First of all, I want to acknowledge I will never be hired for my piping skills.


I’ve tried, but I lack the required patience. I carefully pipe a couple good ones, meaning exactly two, and breezy over-confidence takes over. The next one is invariably smaller than the first two. I correct this with the fourth, which is typically the biggest, for overcompensation, I guess. And number 5 is lopsided. I get frustrated, which is to say pissed, and then it’s just all over from there.

Sometimes I scrape them all back up, like I did yesterday, starting over with a new piping bag because God knows the first one was a complete mess of chocolate all over the place. My husband, thinking he smelled chocolate somewhere and feeling the need to investigate, pointed helpfully at my chocolate smeared shirt, as if I didn’t know I’d dropped some on me, and I snapped back: “Yes. I. Know.” He beat a hasty, wise, retreat to the den. Chocolate-less.

I still don’t understand how it got in my hair.

But I never really give up. Maybe I should, but I keep at it. I mean, it’s not like it’s brain surgery and I have to study neurons and their pathways or something. But just as with things in life that don’t fall into place easily and effortlessly, like finding a new job, writing a book, or getting along with my mom when she was alive,  I just keep at it. Someday, hopefully soon, I’ll get it right. But first, I need to acquire a lot more patience.

A Few Cooking Notes:

If you want all chocolate, no worries, just use 9 ounces butter, and omit the peanut butter.

I haven’t tried these with coconut oil, but I really want to. That will be the next kitchen experiment with these babies (in addition to more piping practice, of course). I’m wondering if the coconut oil might make the dough less stiff and easier to pipe too.

When piping these cookies, since the dough can be a little stiff, use the straight edge of a bench scraper, or other hard straight edge, to slide the dough towards the tip. I lay the entire bag on the counter to do this. Try to eliminate as many air bubbles as you easily can, as they will disrupt your piping as air is released. This can cause little pock marks in the piped cookies.

Practice makes perfect better.

Five more desserts I’ve seen this week that made me want to get out my baking pans:

Poppyseed Marzipan Kuchen on Rosemary and Rita’s site Get Cooking Simply (by Rosemary’s daughter living in Germany)

Apple Slice by Wendy at Sunchowder’s Emporia (much more than just an apple slice!)

Tahini Cookies by Hannah at Blue Kale Road

Chiffon Cake with Roasted Strawberries and Rhubarb by Suzanne at A Pug in the Kitchen (and Suzanne has an amazing chocolate semifreddo on Food 52)

Olive Oil and Thyme Mini Bundt Cakes by Alice at the Hip Foodie Mom site

Peanut Butter - Chocolate Kiss Cookies

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Prep Time 40 mins Cook Time 8 mins Total Time 48 mins
Serves 36     adjust servings

Ingredients

  • 6 ounces unsalted butter, room temp
  • 3 ounces peanut butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 2.8 ounces confectioners sugar, sifted, plus some for sifting over the baked cookies at the end
  • 4 1/2 teaspoons coconut sugar
  • 1.5 ounces unsweetened cacao (chocolate) powder
  • 1 egg
  • 5 ounces all-purpose flour

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat. Fit a pastry bag with a tip for the shape you wish to pipe. Bigger is better here, as the cookie dough can be a little stiff. If you don't plan to pipe the cookies, they can be spooned out onto the prepared baking sheet too.
  2. Beat the softened butter and peanut butter with a paddle attachment until lighter in color and creamy (about 2 -3 minutes). The color changes due to the air being whipped into it, which translates into a fluffy base for the cookie.
  3. Add the vanilla extract and salt. When fully incorporated, add the sugars and beat again until fully incorporated, starting on low speed.
  4. Add the cocoa powder and egg and mix until fully incorporated.
  5. Sift in the flour in thirds and mix in using a rubber spatula until flour is just incorporated before adding the next ⅓. Do not over-mix as this will result in a tougher cookie.
  6. If you're piping the cookies, spoon ½ cookie dough into the pastry bag and pipe cookies onto the parchment paper or silpat, 1½ to 2 inches apart from each other. I pipe mine about 1½" in diameter at their base. They will spread a bit in the oven from the butter, and the tops will sink a bit, but the overall shape should hold fine.
  7. Bake for 8 minutes or until just starting to set up. Do not cook until they become hard or browned.
  8. Cool on a cooling rack. For larger cookies, you may want to let them cool on the cookie sheet for 1 minute before removing to a cooking rack.
  9. Sift with a little confectioners sugar just before serving.

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Comments

  1. Peanut butter and chocolate was one of my favorite combinations back when I could still have the latter (sob). Your piping skills look absolutely dandy to me; I wind up with stuff in my hair often. I once discovered a blob of meringue in my left ear.

    Reply

  2. Are you kidding ? Those are perfect cookies ! Such a neat recipe. I bought coconut sugar & am waiting to use it for my #SS crackers post. This cookie is on my list too. I may try it with almond flour but am pretty sure it won’t come out as perfect 🙂 Those are great kisses !

    Reply

    • The angle of the photograph made ALL the difference, but I still ended up with one stretching up as if to say “Me, me, me!” And of course it’s the one my lens wanted to focus in on. Oh well, the flowers are pretty and likely save the photo. I’m making these with coconut oil next time. I’m also thinking of reducing the flour a bit for easier piping. But I know both changes will likely increase the spreading if I do. My head hurts now.
      The Wimpy Vegetarian recently posted..Friday Desserts: Peanut Butter – Chocolate Kiss CookiesMy Profile

      Reply

  4. Wow, Susan, I love these. I am going to make these, can I post on my blog, I don’t see a re blog capability on yours. I agree with Cynthia, your piping skills look great to me, I love that there is only 5 oz of flour in these, I could have one as a treat on my diet. I have ZERO piping skills so to me your cookies look totally gorgeous!! Chocolate and peanut butter my favorite combination.
    apuginthekitchen recently posted..Re-Purposing Leftovers-Salmon,Asparagus And Whole Wheat PappardelleMy Profile

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  5. Oh! My! Goodness! You’ve hit my Achilles with PB and chocolate! So much for that diet before our cruise! lol

    I would love for you to link up with me and share some of your wonderful recipes on my Foodie Friday Blog Hop! You can share your old favorites and find some new ones while you’re there! (I know my readers will LOVE this one!)

    Hope to see you there!
    Melissa
    A Room for Two with a View

    Reply

  7. These look fantastic, Susan! And I can totally relate to the lack of piping skills. I’m always hoping that at least one will turn out decent enough to photograph…and I’ve been known to scrape buttercream off cupcakes and start over /

    Reply

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