There’s always an exception for peanut butter cups.

double dark chocolate peanut butter cup cookies I howsweeteats.com

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.

double dark chocolate peanut butter cup cookies I howsweeteats.com

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.

double dark chocolate peanut butter cup cookies I howsweeteats.com

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.

double dark chocolate peanut butter cup cookies I howsweeteats.com

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 I howsweeteats.com

Double Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

5 from 13 votes
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Ingredients

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

[slightly adapted from brown eyed baker]
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double dark chocolate peanut butter cup cookies I howsweeteats.com

Can you even.