Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Total Time: 2 hrs 45 mins Preparation Time: 2 hrs Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted peanuts
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 lb unsalted butter, cut into 1 oz pieces
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups icing sugar
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces

Recipe

• 1 preheat the oven to 325*f.
• 2 toast the peanuts in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown. cool to room temperature before finely chopping in a food processor fitted with a metal blade (about 20 seconds) or by hand with a cook's knife.
• 3 melt the 6 oz of semi sweet chocolate in the top of a double boiler, stirring with a rubber spatula until smooth. set aside.
• 4 place 1 cup peanut butter, sugar and butter in a bowl and beat together until soft (about 2 minutes). beat in egg and vanilla and continue to beat for 3 minutes until smooth.
• 5 add the melted chocolate and chopped peanuts. stir in the flour and salt until thoroughly combined.
• 6 divide the dough into 2 equal portions. with both palms, roll each into 12 inch long x 1 1/2 inch in diameter cylinder on a clean, dry cutting board. wrap each portion in plastic wrap and chill for 3 to 4 hours until very firm to the touch.
• 7 remove from the fridge and discard the plastic wrap. cut each cylinder of dough into 24 individual 1/2 inch thick slices. divide the slices onto 4 nonstick baking sheets, evenly spacing. place the sheets on the top and center racks of a preheated oven and bake for 16 to 18 minutes, rotating sheets from top to center halfway through baking time and also rotating them 180 degrees.
• 8 remove the cookies from the oven and cool to room temp on the cookie sheets, about 30 minutes.
• 9 for the topping place the 1 1/4 cups peanut butter and the icing sugar in a mixing bowl and beat together until fluffy.
• 10 place a heaping teaspoon of creamy topping in the center of each cookie. use a small spatula or knife to spread the topping evenly over the top of each cookie.
• 11 melt the remaining semisweet chocolate in the top of a double boiler. using a teaspoon, drizzle thin lines of melted chocolate over the top of each cookie.