Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows

I brought these peanut butter filled chocolate cookies to school and lots of my classmates loved them and wanted the recipe! Which always makes me happy. Filled cookies are always fun and these ones are really yummy. Of course they're more time consuming than a regular drop cookie but they're only a tad more difficult. You just roll out the peanut butter balls, then wrap them with the chocolate dough. I didn't like how the chocolate dough got a bit crispy around the edges, but maybe I overhandled the dough. I've also made a similar cookie years ago by Martha Stewart - it's a softer cookie with a more hidden peanut butter center, as it isn't shaped like a cute little UFO!

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Cowboy Cookies
Double Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies
Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies
Chocolate Chunk Malt Cookies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows
Adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

Makes 2 dozen cookies

For the chocolate dough:
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tbsp nondairy milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

For the filling:
3/4 cup natural smooth peanut butter
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2 to 3 tbsp nondairy milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together oil, sugar, maple syrup, milk, and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the liquid mixture and stir together until just mixed.

2. Make the peanut butter filling: In another mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat together peanut butter, powdered sugar, 2 tbsp of the milk, and vanilla to form a moist but firm dough. If peanut butter dough is dry and crumbly, stir in the remaining tablespoon of milk. If dough is too wet knead in a little extra powdered sugar.

3. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats.

Shape the cookies:
1. Create the centers of the cookies by rolling the peanut butter dough into 24 balls (try dividing dough in half, then each part in half again and roll each portion into six balls). Scoop a generous tablespoon of chocolate dough, flatten into a thin disc, and place peanut butter ball in the center. Fold the sides of the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter center and roll into a smooth ball between your palms. Place on prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. If you want you can flatten cookies slightly (I didn't).

2. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the sheet from the oven and let the cookies stand for 5 minutes before moving them to wire racks to complete cooling.