Peanut butter and chocolate — a match made in cookie heaven

I picked up a tub of devilishly addictive Mini Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups from Trader Joe’s. They’re like a chocolate-chip sized version of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and they’re dangerous.

After a few days of helping myself to a handful of these chocolate-peanut-butter gems, I figured I’d try baking them into cookies, something between a peanut butter kiss — one of my all-time favorites — and a traditional chocolate-chip cookie.

The peanut butter cups aren’t as sturdy as chocolate chips, and turned into globs during the baking process. Even though they didn’t keep their initial form, the candies added an additional peanut-butter punch to the cookies.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Adapted from a Now … You’re Cooking! peanut-butter kiss recipe
2 2/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups mini peanut butter cups

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda. Add butter and peanut butter and mix until smooth. Add sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth. Stir in peanut butter cups gently.
Make balls out of level tablespoons of dough. Place balls two inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets, and bake for 10 minutes.