Double Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.
There’s always an exception for peanut butter cups.
There’s an exception for peanut butter cups when everybody else is making their own homemade version. There’s an exception for them when they might not be organic or all fancy and an exception when you want a more-than-basic s’more. (oh yes.)
There’s an exception when it’s midnight and you don’t want to eat crappy halloween candy just as much as the exception when you’re 17 and heartbroken and surviving on peanut butter spoons dipped in chocolate chips. (that was so much worse at the time.)
There is ALWAYS time for peanut butter cups. And no, I have zero interest in your almond butter cups, internet. IT IS NOT THE SAME. Never will be.
What I do have interest in? I want to figure out who first put chocolate and peanut butter together and give them a big, fat smooch. I want to witness brilliance.
So hi. Everyone always talks about the chocolate chip cookies from levain bakery in NYC but, um – let’s talk about the chocolate peanut butter cup cookies.
They
are
insane.
(Plus, their chocolate chip cookies have nuts in them and while I will attest to their deliciousness, I still stand firm in the “nuts ruin all desserts” camp.)
As a lifelong peanut butter chocolate shipper, that cookie quite possibly ranks up there as the best I’ve ever had. Like ever. I mean I’m never one that is able to choose favorites, but this is absolutely in the top five. Off.the.charts. We bought two and just my luck – Eddie assumed that one had nuts too. Therefore he refused to eat it and it was all miiiiiine.
The levain version is deep, dark cocoa and filled with peanut butter cups. Their cookies are so thick and fat to begin with, but at the same time also kind of chewy but crumbly but soft. Does that make sense? Because you just need to eat one to experience it.
You NEED to.
Put it on your bucket list.
So I just HAD (!!!!) to make them at home. I barely waited a day. Okay, I waited two days. Two long, excruciating days of no peanut butter chocolate cookies. And then, I found a recipe for copycat levain cookies on my friend Michelle’s site and I was like, this is happening NOW. Drop everything. Just do it. These cookies are HUGE.
Plus, Michelle and I live in the same city, had babies approximately 30 days apart and text back and forth often about food being flung off of high chairs, baby giggles, and our new-to-us #momlife that will never feel real. (Seriously what is this life.)
I’m not very into stuffing things into my chocolate chip cookies anymore, especially candy – which I realize seems quite hypocritical since I just threw an obnoxious amount of it on top of a brownie last week. Who do I think I am?
But! There is always an exception for peanut butter cups.
Double Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 3/4 cup loosely packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup peanut butter chips
- 2 cups mini peanut butter cups
Instructions
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt.
- Place the cold butter in the bowl of your electric stand mixer and beat until the butter forms a ball or lumb of butter. Add in the sugars and beat until combined. Add in each egg, one at a time, beating until combined. Beat in the vanilla extract. The batter may look curdled or lumpy at this time. Slowly add in the flour with the mixer on low speed. Beat until it is just combined – even before it all gets stirred in. Stir in the chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.
- Separate the dough into 10 or 12 equal balls. Take each ball and pull it apart, then press a small handful of mini peanut butter cups into one of the dough pieces. Cover it with the other half of the dough, forming a ball around the PB cups and covering them completely. Place all the PB cup filled dough balls on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake about 4 dough balls at a time – you want 2 inches on all sides between each piece of dough. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until just slightly set. Let the cookies cool slightly before eating.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
Can you even.
74 Comments on “Double Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.”
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I am curious how many cookies this recipe makes? Thanks!
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Oh my word…funny story. I had literally never heard of Levain Bakery but saw this recipe a long time ago and pinned it, because who doesn’t love peanut butter and chocolate. Then, this week, a rep sent us a box of cookies from Levain Bakery, and while I can take or leave a lot of cookies, I became OBSESSED with the chocolate peanut butter ones and devoured them. They weigh like 5 pounds each! So I was poring over my Pinterest board, saw these, and though, hmm, maybe this’ll do me. Then you actually mentioned those exact cookies! It’s kismet.
Anyway, will these turn out as high and dense? The texture of the Levain ones was just so amazing, dense and moist and rich, a texture all their own. Thank you, and can’t wait to try it out!
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You always manage to combine the most amazing flavours into the most decadent-looking cookies, Jessica! I’ll definitely be sharing this with my followers via social media :)
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Does it matter if you refrigerate the dough for longer than an hour. I would like to leave them in the fridge all afternoon while I’m at work and then quick bake them so they’ll be fresh to take somewhere.
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Whenever I make these cookies they don’t rise or expand at all for some reason. Idk what part I’m doing wrong but I am about to give up:( anyone has any idea why these cookies save their shape always? I mean if it was the baking soda or something they could still expand like melting idk …
These sound absolutely delcious. can’t wait to try making these. Thanks
Simon
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do you think this dough will work with pecans instead of choc/pb chips?
(and great story on Pinch of Yum)
These did NOT turn out for me!! Turned out like hard little rocks – so disappointed!
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Oh no, these looked so amazing but did not turn out right at all. Very dense, almost burnt tasting (even baked at only 12 minutes) and did not spread out at all. Did anyone have this issue and find a way to correct it? Willing to try again!
I just made these dark chocolat peanut butter cup cookies and they turned out NOTHING like your picture. I’m a great baker and rarely screw things up because I read the recipe two to three times. Like another person commented, the do burn a bit on the bottom and they stay in a lump,fort the most part. And the dough seems dry as you’re enclosing the mini peanut butter cups. I’ll never make that again as I don’t like wastingexpensive ingredients such as the butter, cocoa, and ask the chips and pb cups.
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These are SO SO GOOD. I don’t even love chocolate and PB and these are a dream. I use reese’s pieces instead of pb chips for color and they’re awesome.
Hi. I tried making these, but they aren’t as spread while baking in the oven as yours did. I followed it exactly. Not sure what went wrong. Do u have some tips?