Magic in the Middle Cookies
Before we leave the holiday baking behind and enter the new year, there is one more holiday recipe I wanted to share – at least, for my family it is a holiday recipe – Magic in the Middle Cookies. There is nothing particularly festive about these cookies – no red or green, no sprinkles, no traditional holiday flavors. The exterior is a rather unassuming, chocolate brown with just a hint of sugar sparkle. But these cookies were always on my mother’s holiday trays when I was growing up and they were an absolute family favorite – who wouldn’t love to have the cookie version of a peanut butter cup?
When I first started making my own holiday goodie trays, I was still a recipient of one of my mother’s holiday trays. As a result, I made a deliberate decision not to include any of the goodies that my mother made on my trays. Not because I didn’t like them, I 100% loved my mother’s cookies (does anyone not love the cookies mom makes?), but because I wanted to make sure that I had some variety in the holiday goodies at my house.
Over the years, it became more difficult for us to transport the cookies intact across the country. Airport security started to be less inclined to allow the small mountain of goodies through without wanting to open and inspect the contents. Then, as our family grew, we made the decision to celebrate the holidays at our own home rather than flying across the country each December. All of this meaning that I no longer got to enjoy mom’s version of these cookies each year. Thankfully, mom was willing to share the recipe.
The first time I made the cookies myself, in my own home, I remembered some of the pain points of making them that I experienced when helping my mother as a teenager. Two things in particular stood out for me as opportunities for improvement:
- The chocolate cookie dough was a little on the dry side – this made it difficult to smoothly wrap around the filling and led to cracking when using a glass to slightly flatten the cookies.
- There were a couple of other chocolate cookie recipes that I was using at the time that supplemented the egg(s) with additional yolk(s) – I decided to try that here. I ended up with 3 additional egg yolks just because that is the point at which the dough felt “right” to me. It smoothly wrapped around the filling, it did not crack when flattening the cookies and, post baking, it had a delightfully fudgy texture. It is possible that you could go with an additional whole egg and 1 egg yolk, but I was so happy with the results of the 3 additional egg yolks that I never tested that theory.
- The peanut butter filling also felt a little dry to me, post baking. The dough made from equal parts peanut butter and powdered sugar was easy enough to handle and roll into the required shape, but felt a little too solid to me once the cookies were baked.
- For this, I decided to decrease the amount of powdered sugar and increase the amount of peanut butter. I’m going to be honest, this actually makes the filling more difficult to work with, and I frequently skip the rolling all together and simply scoop the filling using a small, 1 tsp cookie scoop directly onto a tray that I can toss into the freezer. Once the filling is frozen solid, it is pretty easy to wrap the cookie dough around it. The end result is a creamier filling that is more salty sweet than just sweet.
Once I was happy with my variation of the recipe, this became my “bonus” holiday cookie. I still never added it to my official holiday line up, but every year, I would make a batch of these cookies just for my team at work. With the somewhat messy and complex assembly required to make these, I knew I didn’t want to do them at the scale I do all my other holiday cookies, but I wanted to do something specifically for my team that felt a little extra special and share one of my childhood favorites with them.
Magic in the Middle Cookies
Equipment
- 3 bowls (small, medium and large)
- Electric mixer
- whisk
- 2 cookie scoops (1 tsp and 1 tbsp size)
- 2 baking trays
- measuring cups (or a kitchen scale)
- measuring spoons
Ingredients
Peanut butter filling:
- 1 ¼ cup peanut butter
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate cookie dough:
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup sugar (plus extra for rolling)
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- ¼ cup smooth peanut butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1 large egg
Instructions
To make the peanut butter filling:
- In a small bowl combine peanut butter and powdered sugar until smooth, refrigerate until firm enough to scoop and roll (about an hour).1 ¼ cup peanut butter, ½ cup powdered sugar, ½ tsp vanilla extract
- Roll the mixture into 26 one-inch balls (about 12g each) and place in the freezer while making the cookie dough.
To make the chocolate cookie dough:
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, set aside.1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, ½ tsp baking soda, ¼ tsp salt
- In a separate, large bowl; use an electric mixer to beat together the sugars, butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy.½ cup sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, ½ cup unsalted butter, ¼ cup smooth peanut butter
- Add the vanilla, egg and egg yolks, continue beating until fully incorporated.1 tsp vanilla extract, 3 large egg yolks, 1 large egg
- Stir in the dry ingredients just until combined, do not overmix.
- Scoop 1 tbsp (about 28g) of the chocolate dough and wrap it around 1 ball of filling, ensure the filling is completely covered, then roll gently in your palms to form a smooth sphere.
- Roll cookie sphere in sugar and place on the prepared sheets. Repeat with remaining dough and filling, leaving about 2” between cookies.
- Using the bottom of a glass, flatten each cookie to about ½” thick (if the glass sticks to the cookies, dip in sugar before continuing)
- Bake ~9 minutes or until just set, remove from oven and cool on rack.
Nutrition
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