Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows

There are many words to describe this cookie (or whatever it is) & I choose divine!

I was in a mood to bake up a storm last weekend & luckily I had a few excuses - two friends with birthdays & a craving for something chocolate. In my opinion - there isn't much that is better than peanut butter and chocolate together & that is exactly what I found.
I have been reading oh-so-many vegan blogs and I have a list longer than my arm of recipes that I am dying to try. This recipe I first found on (never home)maker's blog. You can find her blog and recipe here:
http://www.neverhomemaker.com/2010/01/ppks-peanut-butter-chocolate-pillows.html
She takes some wonderful photos & does a very good job of documenting everything.
The recipe for these little goodies actually belongs to the Post Punk Kitchen, some folks who also do a great job of whipping up some great recipes. You can find their blog & recipe here:
http://www.theppk.com/blog/2009/03/30/peanut-butter-pillows/

So let me tell you about making these cookies. They aren't fast so you will need patience and a not-so-grumbly tummy. Below I will post the recipe taken from the PPK's blog originally.

First step is to get all of your ingredients together like a good little baker:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows
Yeild: 24 cookies (2 dozen)

For the chocolate cookie part:
-1/2 cup canola oil

-1 cup raw sugar (I used organic pure cane sugar)
-1/4 cup pure maple syrup (this is not the same as pancake syrup)
-3 tablespoons non-dairy milk (I used soy because I am trying to get rid of it)
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used artificial vanilla because that’s what I had on hand)
-1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used unbleached organic)
-1/3 cup unsweetened dutch processed cocoa powder (could not find dutched coaco so I used          Hershey’s Special Dark which is a blend of dutched and regular)
-2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa (just used more or the above)
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/4 teaspoon salt

For the Filling:

-3/4 cup natural salted peanut butter, crunchy or creamy style (used Woodstock Farms Organic Easy Spread   smooth/salted)
-2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
-1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
-2 to 3 tablespoons soy creamer or non-dairy milk (used soy milk)

To prepare:

1.  In a small/medium bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, dark cocoa, baking soda and salt. You can sift this together, but I just used a whisk and it was great, easy, & quick.
2. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer (though I am sure that you could use a hand mixer) combine oil, sugar, maple syrup, non-dairy milk, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add the dry mix to the wet ingredients. Mix to form a moist dough. Set this aside.
3. To make the filling: In another medium mixing bowl beat together peanut butter, confectioner’s sugar, 2 tablespoons of soy creamer and vanilla extract to form a moist but firm dough. (I used a hand mixer for this step) If peanut butter dough is too dry (as different natural peanut butters have different moisture content), stir in remaining tablespoon of non-dairy milk. If dough is too wet knead in a little extra powdered sugar. **Helpful hint from me – as natural peanut butter requires refrigeration, I found it easiest to work with a new jar of PB so that it was soft and easy to mix. This particular PB used did not require any additional milk or powdered sugar.**
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. (I did not line my trays with parchment paper. I do, however have nice baking sheets – I would not recommend using an old baking sheet that has black markings all over.)
5. Shape the cookies: Create the centers of the cookies by rolling the peanut butter dough into 24 balls. Because it is hard to tell just how large to make these, it may take some trial and error. I believe that my PB centers were about as big around as a quarter. Set these aside.
6. Scoop a generous tablespoon (be careful of how generous you are with your tablespoons –used a tablespoon measure to scoop out the chocolate dough and let it overflow a litte and ended up one chocolate ball short)of chocolate dough, flatten into a disc and place a peanut butter ball in the center.
7. Fold the sides of chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter center and roll the chocolate ball into a smooth ball between your palms. Place on a baking tray and repeat with remaining dough & PB.
8. Place dough balls on lined (or not) baking sheets about 2 inches apart and bake for 10 minutes. **Because I did not want to rotate my trays in the oven as I was unsure how that would affect the baking of these particular cookies –I made one tray of 12, baked them and put together the remaining 12 as the first batch baked. The timing was perfect.** Remove sheet from oven and let cookies sit on the tray for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to complete cooling. Store cookies in airtight container.

They are so wonderful - they are absolutely worth the time. As I did some more baking this weekend, I will post those later.