Cloudy With A Chance of Peanut Butter

Chocolate and peanut butter are a match made in heaven.  Reese's Peanut butter cups were always one my favorite candies growing up.  Now I make my own, or simply slather peanut butter on a chocolate bar when a craving hits.  To further explore the amazing chocolate-peanut butter combination, I decided to make peanut butter cups in cookie form.  The result was these chocolate clouds of peanut butter bliss. A chocolate cookie baked around a creamy peanut butter nugget that guarantees sweet satisfaction with every bite!

Try them.  If you love peanut butter and chocolate, they are gold!  Nothing beats a warm cookie out of the oven with a cold glass of milk, especially when it contains both peanut butter and chocolate.  Eat your way to bliss!

Cloudy With A Chance of Peanut Butter Cookies
vegan

yield:  32 cookies

For the dough:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
3/4 cup maple syrup (or liquid sweetener of choice)
1/4 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
1 tsp vanilla

For the filling:
3/4 cup natural peanut butter
1/3 cup coconut flour*
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch salt

*The amount of coconut flour you need will vary depending on the thickness of the peanut butter you use.

Directions:
1.  To make the filling, stir the peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt together.  Add the coconut flour slowly, starting with 1/4 a cup, until you reach a soft-serve consistency.  Put in the refrigerator for an hour to chill.  It will continue to thicken.

2.  To make the dough, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, whisk together the maple syrup and coconut sugar until it is a caramel-like consistency.  Add the melted oil and vanilla and whisk until well combined.

3.  Preheat the oven to 350 F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Take the filling out of the refrigerator.  Roll the filling into a giant ball, then cut it into eight equal pieces.  Re-roll each piece into a ball and divide each ball into four pieces so you are left with 32 pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball.

4.  Break off a piece of the chocolate dough (about the size of the peanut butter balls)  and roll it into a ball.  You can break up the dough the same way as the filing, if desired.  I'm lazy and usually eyeball it.

5.  Flatten the dough with your other palm.

6.  Place a ball of the filling in the center and fold the sides of the dough around the ball so it is completely covered.  I roll the dough between my hands to seal the cracks.

7.  Place on the prepared cookie pans and bake for 9 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes on the pan before finishing on a cooling rack.  Then will seem very soft, but they will harden as they cool. Store in an airtight container.