Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Cups

I have been head-over-heels in love with these teeny, amazing peanut butter cups from Trader Joe's for years.  They are So. Freaking. Good.  It's a little too easy to down an entire container in one sitting., so I actually haven't bought them in a while.  The other day while perusing the aisles of my local Trader Joe's, however, they caught my eye and I had an epiphany.   What if I could incorporated these little gems into a baked good ~ cookies, or maybe bars?  That way I wouldn't wolf down an entire container on my own, but I'd still get to enjoy these heavenly little cups. I've never created a recipe in my life {and I didn't actually "create" this recipe from the ground up ~ I tweaked an already established recipe}, but I figured there was no harm in experimenting a little.


I decided to try making both cookies and cookie "cups", and I started with the classic Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe, but altered it a bit.  The Trader Joe's mini peanut butter cups are made with milk-chocolate, which is sweeter than the semi-sweet chips that are usually in chocolate chip cookies, so I wanted to make sure the batter itself wasn't too sweet.

I made a few batches of cookies {using different temperatures and/or baking times} and a batch of cookie cups.  The cookies came out a bit thinner and crisper than traditional chocolate chip cookies, so I liked the cookie cups better ~ they were soft and chewy, and you could taste those yummy peanut butter cups in each bite.

{Assemble all your ingredients ~ don't forget your mini pb cups!}

 {Cream the butter and sugars ~ let them cream together for a good five minutes}

 {Add vanilla extract and eggs}

 {Mix in the dry ingredients}

{Stir in chocolate chips...}

{...and those yummy mini peanut butter cups!}

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Cups

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup {2 sticks} butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar {packed}

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup mini peanut butter cups

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin tin.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl.  Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer, beat butter, sugar and brown sugar together for several minutes.  Add the vanilla extract and the eggs, one at a time.  Beat in flour mixture in thirds.  Turn off mixer and stir in chocolate chips and peanut butter cups.  Using a small cookie scoop, place one scoop of dough into each cup of a mini-muffin tin.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Let cool for several minutes in pan, and then remove to cool on wire racks.

{For regular cookies ~ bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 375 degrees for 10 minutes}

{Cookies in the back, cookie cups in the front}

 {See the melty peanut butter cups?}

Happy baking, everyone!

xoxo

Bean