Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Cups

Sometimes it's hard to choose just which sweet treat you want to indulge in. These peanut butter cookie dough cups take the deliciousness of a classic peanut butter cup and edible cookie dough, and marry them into one! It's the best of both worlds.

INGREDIENTS FOR PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE DOUGH CUPS

To make a batch of these cookie dough cups, you'll need standard cookie dough ingredients, plus the chocolate to cover it in! Here's your shopping list:

• All-purpose flour

• Salt

• Peanut butter

• Unsalted butter

• Granulated + brown sugar

• Vanilla extract

• Mini chocolate chips

• Milk Chocolate

• Coconut oil

MAKING THE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE DOUGH BITES

To begin, start by lining a standard muffin pan with 12 paper liners. Using a double boiler or microwave, melt the milk chocolate and coconut oil until smooth. Spoon about 2 teaspoons of melted chocolate in each cup. Use a spoon or knife to spread chocolate about halfway up the sides of the liners. Pop into the refrigerator to harden. While they harden, make the peanut butter cookie dough centers.

Combine the softened butter, peanut butter, sugars, and vanilla extract in a bowl and mix until it's light and fluffy. Add the flour and salt, and mix until combined and a cookie dough forms. Fold in the mini chocolate chips. Scoop 12 equal amounts of the peanut butter cookie dough and roll them into balls.

Take the chocolate cups out of the refrigerator. Place one ball of cookie dough in each of the chocolate cups. Using your hands or the bottom of a glass, gently press down the cookie dough to flatten it into an even layer, touching the sides of the chocolate cup. Re-melt the remaining milk chocolate. Once smooth again, spoon equal amounts of the melted chocolate onto the tops of each peanut butter cup. There should be just the right amount left to cover all 12 cups. Now that the cups are done, pop them in the refrigerator to set completely.

HEAT-TREATING YOUR ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR

When making no-bake goodies like edible cookie dough, it’s important to heat-treat your flour. If you’ve ever read top of the flour bag, a lot of them say you should never consume raw flour, at the risk it may contain bacteria. Cooking/heat-treating the flour will get rid of that! Here’s what you need to do for that:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Dump your measured flour on the baking sheet and spread it out into an even layer.
3. Pop into the preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, remove from oven and allow it to cool!

THAT’S IT!

TIPS FOR THE BEST COOKIE DOUGH CUPS

Use mini chocolate chips. This might be personal preference, but I think that mini chocolate chips are way better in these cookie dough cups than regular sized chips. They're perfect for the size of these little treats!

Use milk chocolate and coconut oil. To get that nostalgic taste of a classic peanut butter cup, I love using milk chocolate. I also recommend adding refined coconut oil when melting the chocolate because it will make it spread easier and will give the peanut butter cups a softer bite when eating them.

Store them in the fridge. Once you’ve made these cookie dough cups, I like to keep them in the refrigerator in an airtight container. They will keep much longer and it's perfect to just grab one for a sweet bite on the go!

Top them with flaky sea salt. This is a totally optional step. Once you put the top layer of milk chocolate into the cups, you can sprinkle a little bit of flaky sea salt on the tops of the chocolate before putting them into the refrigerator to harden. It adds a nice salty-sweet element and a nice little crunch.