I have made many different varieties of sandwich cookies in my time, and one of the little irritations I often encounter is trying to match up cookie pairs of identical shape and size to sandwich together. Well, I finally found a recipe that eliminates this problem -- the peanut butter sandwich cookies with milk chocolate filling from The Craft of Baking. The batter for these cookies (made with flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, dark brown sugar, powdered sugar, creamy peanut butter, vegetable oil, vanilla, and an egg) is a soft dough that bakes up into perfectly round, flat, uniform cookies when parceled out with a cookie scoop (I used a #60 scoop and ended up with cookies 2 and 1/4 inches in diameter). These cute wafers had the slightly bumpy surface texture that is distinctive of peanut butter cookies.
With all of the cookies being identical, putting together the sandwiches (the filling is a mixture of milk chocolate, smooth peanut butter, powdered sugar, salt, and boiling cream) was a snap -- I could pick any two cookies at random and they would fit together to form a perfect sandwich. The cookies on their own have a great peanut flavor and are crisp (in fact, a little dry -- although I think this probably helps them avoid becoming soggy next to the filling). The creamy filling tastes mostly of peanuts; the mild milk chocolate is basically drowned out by the peanut butter. I might try bittersweet chocolate next time to get a bit of a stronger chocolate flavor. However, even though they aren't very chocolate-y, these sandwiches were really delicious -- much better than anything you might find in the cookie aisle at the supermarket. I would consider these cookies a success on taste and texture alone, but the fact that they turned out so attractive is a huge bonus (and, it definitely puts them ahead of the Nutter Butter recipe from Bouchon Bakery, which I have tried in the past with rather homely results).
Recipe: "Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies with Milk Chocolate Filling" from The Craft of Baking: Cakes, Cookies & Other Sweets with Ideas for Inventing Your Own by Karen DeMasco and Mindy Fox.
With all of the cookies being identical, putting together the sandwiches (the filling is a mixture of milk chocolate, smooth peanut butter, powdered sugar, salt, and boiling cream) was a snap -- I could pick any two cookies at random and they would fit together to form a perfect sandwich. The cookies on their own have a great peanut flavor and are crisp (in fact, a little dry -- although I think this probably helps them avoid becoming soggy next to the filling). The creamy filling tastes mostly of peanuts; the mild milk chocolate is basically drowned out by the peanut butter. I might try bittersweet chocolate next time to get a bit of a stronger chocolate flavor. However, even though they aren't very chocolate-y, these sandwiches were really delicious -- much better than anything you might find in the cookie aisle at the supermarket. I would consider these cookies a success on taste and texture alone, but the fact that they turned out so attractive is a huge bonus (and, it definitely puts them ahead of the Nutter Butter recipe from Bouchon Bakery, which I have tried in the past with rather homely results).
Recipe: "Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies with Milk Chocolate Filling" from The Craft of Baking: Cakes, Cookies & Other Sweets with Ideas for Inventing Your Own by Karen DeMasco and Mindy Fox.
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