Folks will crumble for peanut butter cup treats

— Do you like peanut butter cups?

These unusual cookies, from Big Fat Cookies by Elinor Klivans, incorporate the popular candy in their dough. The cookies have an unusual, crumbly texture. It's important to let them cool (and thus, set) on the cookie sheets before moving them to a wire rack.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 /2 teaspoon baking soda

1 /8 teaspoon salt

3 /4 cup smooth peanut butter, room temperature

1 /2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 /3 cup granulated sugar

1 /4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 /4 cup shortening

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (10-ounce) bag miniature peanut butter cups, unwrapped, quartered

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchmentpaper.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.

Beat peanut butter, sugars, butter and shortening in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until smoothly blended, about 1 minute. Add egg and vanilla; beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture, mixing until incorporated and the dough is soft and smooth, about 1 minute. Stir in peanut butter cup pieces with a large spoon.

Drop heaping tablespoons of the dough on prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart (you may need to help form the dough into mounds). Bake until the cookies feel firm and have several small cracks, 18 to 20 minutes.

Cool the cookies 5 minutes on the baking sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 30 cookies.

Nutrition information: Each cookie contains 155 calories (53 percent of calories from fat), 9 g fat (3 g saturated), 12 mg cholesterol, 15 g carbohydrate, 3 g protein, 94 mg sodium and 1 g fiber.

Food, Pages 54 on 10/31/2007

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