A couple of months ago, I started participating in food collaborations on Instagram. Each collab has a theme such as brunch dishes, spices, sourdough starter recipes, etc. and you have to share a picture sharing your creation. This week's collab is peanut butter and I could not have been more excited. There are so many ways to use peanut butter but I knew that I wanted to create the world's best peanut butter sandwich cookies. Yes, that is a bold goal but I think I accomplished it. The cookies are alone are spectacular. Buttery with the perfect amount of peanut butter, I fell in love. Now sandwich those with more peanut butter, drizzle on some strawberry jam frosting and you have yourself a party. If you love peanut butter, these sandwich cookies need to be on your to-do list.
Recipe
The Best Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients
Peanut butter cookies
- ½ cup butter softened
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dry milk powder
Filling
- 5 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
- 1 ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoon water
Strawberry icing
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon strawberry jam
- 1 teaspoon water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Cream together ½ cup butter with ¼ cup peanut butter and ¼ cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour, ¼ teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon dry milk powder and stir just until combined. Cover and chill the dough for 30 minutes or until firm.
- Dust a clean work counter with flour. Roll out the cookie dough until ⅛ inch thick, making sure to continuously dust the counter and rolling pin with flour. Cut out 2 inch-circles and carefully transfer the cookies onto the baking sheet, leaving ½ inch gap in between. Bake the cookies for 7-8 minutes or until pale golden. Cool the cookies completely on a wire rack.
- Make the filling. Beat together 5 tablespoon creamy peanut butter with 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar and 3 tablespoon water until well combined. Add an additional tablespoon of water if the frosting is too thick. Transfer the peanut frosting into a piping bag. Flip over half of the cookies and pipe on the frosting. Stack another cookie on top to make sandwich peanut butter sandwich cookies.
- Make the strawberry icing. Beat together ¼ cup powdered sugar with 1 tablespoon strawberry jam and 1 teaspoon water. Drizzle the icing on the cookies and serve.
**Helpful tips and common mistakes
Let me start by telling you that I tested over 20 cookies to find the perfect recipe. I had a specific type of cookie in mind and was determined to figure out the secret. My inspiration was one of my favorite store-bought cookies, the Milano cookie. Buttery sandwich cookies are sandwiched with chocolate ganache and they are so incredibly addicting. I wasn't able to recreate the exact Milano cookie but this version probably worked out for the better.
Okay, time to get started. Oh, I should also note that this recipe is a bit tricky. The dough is not the easiest to work with. But please don't let that stop you from making these peanut butter sandwich cookies! Correction, the best peanut butter sandwich cookies. Okay, back to the cookie batter. Cream together softened butter with peanut butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the remaining ingredients including the vanilla, flour, salt, and dry milk powder.
Do you absolutely need dry milk powder? In my opinion, the milk powder makes the cookie more tender and almost silkier. However, if you want to skip the milk powder, don't worry, the cookies will still taste great.
Chill the cookie dough for at least 30 minutes or until firm. This is absolutely crucial. The cookie dough is incredibly soft and is a bit tricky to handle, especially when warm. Even after chilling, it can be difficult to roll out as it starts to get warm. Make sure your counter is cold (you can even place ice on top of the counter before rolling out the cookie) and dust your hands, rolling pin, and counter with a generous amount of flour. Don't be afraid to sprinkle on more flour if the cookie dough sticks to the counter or rolling pin.
Use a cutter and cut about 2-inch rounds. Carefully transfer the dough to a lined parchment paper and bake the cookies until lightly golden. If you're having some difficulty transferring the cookies to the parchment paper, you can use a bench knife or you can even roll out the dough directly on parchment paper. That way, all you have to do is remove the excess dough. And yes, you can re-roll the excess dough to make more cookies! Just chill the dough before re-rolling to make life easier.
Since these peanut butter cookies are so thin and oven temperatures aren't exactly the most reliable, I prefer to bake one sheet at a time. Halfway through the baking time, rotate the baking sheet to allow even browning. We went through all the effort, might as well do everything possible to make the cookies perfect!
While the cookies are cooling, make the peanut butter frosting. All-natural peanut butter is great but for these cookies, go for the smooth creamy peanut butter spreads like Jif or Skippy. The all-natural types tend to make the frosting too thick and heavy. Beat the peanut butter with powdered sugar and just enough water to make it spreadable.
The cookies are very delicate so it's easier to pipe on the peanut butter frosting rather than spreading it with a knife. Very carefully sandwich the cookies and drizzle on the strawberry jam icing.
We're made it to the end! I know that was a lot of tips but I wanted to share every bit of advice so that you can successfully recreate the best peanut butter sandwich cookies. Heck, if you don't want to make the sandwiched cookies just make the cookies and trust me, you'll love them.
For more cookie inspiration check out these matcha and white cookies!
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