Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies
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Supper Club: Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

Published: December 10, 2010 / Updated: December 18, 2016 / 61 Comments

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I saw this post over at Sweet Pea’s Kitchen, and realized that I had everything I needed to make these beautiful cookies for our Supper Club’s annual cookie swap. These turned out fantastic! The chocolate cookie is just soft enough, and the peanut butter filling is creamy and delicious. It’s like a buckeye candy but in cookie form. My only complaint about this recipe is that it didn’t make nearly enough cookies! I got less than 3 dozen out of this dough. I’ll definitely be making them again soon!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies
Sweet Pea’s Kitchen

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar (plus more for rolling)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375º F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together sugars, butter and 1/4 cup of peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg, beating to combine. Stir in the flour mixture and stir to combine, blending well. Set aside.

4. In a medium bowl, mix together powdered sugar and remaining 3/4 cup of peanut butter until smooth.

5. Pull off a heaping tablespoon of cookie dough and flatten with your hands. Take about 1 teaspoon of peanut butter mixture and place it in the center of the chocolate dough. Wrap the chocolate dough around the peanut butter center, pressing to seal. Roll the cookie into a ball and roll the cookie in the sugar. Place cookies on the prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart. Using the bottom of a glass, flatten each cookie to about a 1/2 inch thickness.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 7 to 9 minutes. Let stand on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then remove to a wire rack.

Big Flavors Rating: 5 Stars

Ashley Covelli is a food photographer, recipe developer, and culinary instructor based in Ossining, New York. She loves helping people become enthusiastic and adventurous in the kitchen so that they can build skills and confidence to cook for themselves and their loved ones. She can almost always be found with at least 3 different beverages within arm's reach.

61 Comments

  • sweetpeaskitchen.com

    December 18, 2010 at 11:57 pm Reply

    I am so happy that you enjoyed the recipe! Your photo of them looks amazing. When I brought these babies into work, everyone went crazy for them. These have to be one of my favorite cookies…I am making some more to go into my cookie tins for my neighbors. Happy holidays! 🙂

    ~Christina

  • Ashley

    August 6, 2011 at 7:58 am Reply

    Danielle – I believe they’re the same thing. I did a quick google search and they appear to be the same kind of sugar. In the U.S. it’s called either powdered sugar or confectioner’s sugar. It’s the fluffy white kind that melts in your mouth. Hope that helps!

  • Kimberly Anne

    August 9, 2011 at 12:43 am Reply

    I started making these thinking I had all the ingrediants. When I got to the part to fill the cookies with peanut butter I realized I didnt have any powdered sugar… instead of taking the chance and wasting the batter I took some of the white chocolate chips I had an mixed in with the batter. I continued the recipe as listed with the flattening of the cookie and cooking length. The cookies came out great and I look forward to making them the “correct” way soon 🙂

  • Natalie

    October 16, 2011 at 11:11 pm Reply

    These look delicious and another blogger, Angie from The Cellar Door Stories, just raved about them! I just pinned them and will let you know when I get a chance to try them out!

  • Melissa

    February 23, 2012 at 9:18 am Reply

    I wonder if these could be made gluten-free by substituting with gluten-free flour (or almond/coconut flour). Love the picture, great foodography!

  • Anonymous

    March 18, 2012 at 7:09 pm Reply

    The batter for these was very dry and they took 2 hours to make and prep. For such a great amount of work, I hope these turn out. TIP: do not double the batter, only makes a dozen and a half cookies and a WHOLE BUNCH MORE WORK!!!

  • Anonymous

    March 19, 2012 at 12:17 am Reply

    I was just wondering if you have any tips on the actual “pinching together the cookie” process. When I did it, I found the dough was cracking a lot and the peanut butter would seep out even though i put only a little bit inside. Should i maybe refrigerate the peanut butter before making the cookies? Any suggestions? 🙂

  • Ashley

    March 19, 2012 at 10:30 am Reply

    I made these so long ago that I don’t remember 100% but I think I rolled them in my hands to smooth out the edges after stuffing them. They didn’t all look perfect, but they were all tasty!

  • Anonymous

    March 29, 2012 at 7:01 pm Reply

    These were really really good, but took FOREVER to make! I made the mistake of making a double batch which made about 60 cookies and I ended up being in the kitchen for 3-and-a-half hours! Definitely wouldn’t recommend making a double batch.

  • Lori

    April 5, 2012 at 12:54 am Reply

    I just finished the first tray of these, and by finished them I mean finished eating them. I couldn’t stop with one! These are fantastic.

  • LittleMiddle

    April 5, 2012 at 7:51 pm Reply

    Tip from another blog on filling them that should cut the prep time a little:

    Make the peanut butter inside FIRST. Shape little balls and place them on a wax or parchment paper lined sheet, and freeze. While they’re freezing, make the cookie dough, shape balls of that and pinch them into little pinch-pot shapes.

    Remove the frozen insides (just a few at a time) and wrap the soft cookie dough around the hard middles. They thaw quickly for shaping, rolling and squishing.

    Using that technique, I was able to make them in about half the time!

  • Anonymous

    April 8, 2012 at 11:42 pm Reply

    I followed the above advice and even froze the filing balls the days before. Made it very easy to make these cookies in very little time. Everyone loved them.

  • Globalnomad63

    May 1, 2012 at 9:31 pm Reply

    These are pretty darn tasty! Dough was a little crumbly but worked just fine. Didn’t even have to freeze the filling though we did have a bit left over. Thank you so much for sharing!

  • Anonymous

    May 20, 2012 at 9:16 pm Reply

    These are delicious, but as a couple other people mentioned, the dough was quite dry which made assembling them difficult. I simply added a splash of milk to the dough and mixed it up, which made it much more manageable.

  • Mrs. Susan Nolan

    May 27, 2012 at 12:26 pm Reply

    I am going to have to try these again. I’m the cookie queen at work, but I screwed these up. The chocolate dough was dry and hard to form around the peanut butter. I only got about 15 cookies out of the batch. They do have a good taste, but they are a lot of work.

  • Joanne

    June 8, 2012 at 3:02 pm Reply

    I found the dough to be too dry so I added an extra egg. They turned out great, they all look perfect and the dough was much easier to work with once I added the egg.

  • Michelle

    June 18, 2012 at 8:01 pm Reply

    These were very good. Very rich. Everyone should make them at least once. 🙂 Instead of rolling them in sugar i sprinkled powdered sugar on them after they came out and that was really good as well.

  • Ali

    July 16, 2012 at 10:15 am Reply

    I consider myself a pretty awesome baker, but these were so dry I couldn’t even bring myself to eat a whole cookie. I don’t know what it was. I even made two different batches! Humidity possibly?

  • Ashley

    July 16, 2012 at 9:58 pm Reply

    Hmm…I’m not sure. It was so long ago that I made these, and they worked well for me. Was it the peanut butter part or the chocolate part that was dry? Another commenter said that they added an egg to the batter and that helped. I made them in December in New York, so it wasn’t humid at all…

  • Cleo

    August 14, 2012 at 7:53 pm Reply

    Just made these and they are delish!! Quick question- can they be frozen and thawed for later? I’m worried if I leave them out I will eat them all 🙂
    Note: I also had a tough time with the dough- it kept cracking. But the cookies look very interesting with the peanut butter seeping through

  • Courtney Miller

    August 15, 2012 at 11:36 am Reply

    These were super easy to make, I thought! I had my 2 year old helping- she was in charge of adding the peanut butter to the flattened cookie. The hardest part was convincing her not to eat all the peanut butter mix!! I’m a little worried, cuz I have extra, but I’m gonna freeze it into little nuggets for ice cream.
    I didnt read the instructions so well though, and made mine HUGE so I only got about 13. Which is actually okay, they’re my daughter’s “gift” for hubby’s birthday, it’s better to only have a few so we wont gorge ourselves on them.
    Thanks for this recipe!

  • Ashley

    August 15, 2012 at 1:05 pm Reply

    I’ve never tried freezing this dough – I’ve only made them once. But maybe I’ll try ’em again this year once it cools down since there are so many questions about them. I’d recommend contacting Christina over at Sweet Pea’s Kitchen since it’s her fantastic recipe!

  • Lindsay

    December 4, 2012 at 5:33 pm Reply

    These turned out incredible for me! Thanks for the recipe! I thought the peanut butter was too crumbly so I changed the paddle on my kitchenaid and they creamed right up. They are really really good! I got about 18 cookies. Even though we are a family of seven, sometimes it’s a good thing to not have TOO many sweets to devour! 🙂 Thanks again.

  • Kelly

    December 15, 2012 at 10:59 am Reply

    I just made these and got about 18 – 20 as well. Trying to stretch the dough, I started making some smaller, but the larger ones definitely turned out better.

    Thanks for the tips on making the filling first and freezing ahead. I do wish mine would have done a little more cracking like the photo you have in the picture!

  • Ashley

    December 19, 2012 at 2:05 pm Reply

    Kelly – glad you enjoyed them! I hate it when I try to make pretty cookies and they turn out kinda blah looking (like the chewy ginger snaps that I made a few weeks ago)…but at least they taste good!

  • Shaina

    December 25, 2012 at 11:06 pm Reply

    I had no problem with the dough being dry or anything, but i DID end up with too much peanut butter! I used an actual tablespoon and teaspoon (not cutlery, measuring spoons) to measure the first ball of each batter and then used them as sizing guides for the rest…made 22 cookies. And they all had a decent amount of pb in them–when i got towards the end and tried putting more pb in i couldn’t wrap the chocolate around it very well! So I’m curious as to what i did wrong to end up with so much leftover.

    the other issue i had was not knowing how to tell if they were done–most cookies you can tell by firmness or color, but this gave no guidelines. i did mine for 9-10 minutes and they were fine but i was very worried.

    and one more tip! Instead of forming and freezing the pb balls (which would have ended up being too many anyways!) i just refrigerated the pb filling while i made the other dough. it rolled up perfectly and wasn’t too sticky at all 🙂

    none of my issues were serious enough to keep these from being a HUGE hit for Christmas today, so all in all this is a yay!

  • Ashley

    December 26, 2012 at 2:20 pm Reply

    Great notes, Shaina! Sorry that you ran into trouble with the proportions. Not sure how that happened…it’s been so many years since I made these little gems. I know that with a lot of cookies, you can tell that they’re done when they don’t look shiny anymore. Not sure if that was the case with these or not…but I don’t mind eating slightly underbaked cookies 😉

  • Katie Keaton

    January 28, 2013 at 9:20 pm Reply

    I stumbled upon these on Pinterest and was amazed to find them! My Grandma has made these every Christmas since I can remember. They’re my favorite cookies in the whole wide world and I finally got the recipe for them! Anytime I make them to give to someone EVERYONE loves them!

    I have found from cooking these that I’ll cook them for a shorter period of time so as they’re not too hard. Also, measuring the appropriate proportions for peanut butter and dough has never been a problem. I’ve found that if you do have to have more peanut butter in a cookie then it’s still just fine and AMAZING when the peanut butter cracks through the dough after you press them with a cup. Instead of rolling the balls of cookie in sugar, I actually press the bottom of the cup in the sugar and then press down onto the cookies.

  • Trish N

    January 29, 2013 at 5:18 pm Reply

    I made this recipe today and one batch yields 4 1/2 dozen small cookies. I scooped the dough first using a small standard cookie scoop, then portioned out the same number of peanut butter filling balls. The dough is fairly dry but bakes well and is easy to work with so long as I only flatten and fill one dough ball at a time. I made no changes to the recipe ingredients but I did use Callebaut cocoa powder which is very dark and rich. It provided a nice contrast against the filling. I rolled the filled dough into a ball, flattened in my palm, and placed them directly on the prepared pan (I did not flatten with a glass or roll in sugar). I baked them for 7 minutes on a parchment lined baking sheet and allowed them to cool for several minutes on the pan. For those asking about freezing, place the prepared flattened dough on a wax paper or parchment lined baking sheet and freeze. After they are frozen, remove them to a zippered freezer bag for storage. Bake them without thawing as directed in the recipe, adding 1-2 minutes to the baking time (depending on how large your cookies are). Pretty tasty amd the kids love them!

  • Ashley

    February 3, 2013 at 1:21 pm Reply

    Katie – you’re so right about “extra” peanut butter 🙂 I’m also guilty of eating it straight out of the bowl and then having less cookies than I had planned on haha!

    Trish N – Thanks for the tips on freezing these beauties!

  • PeruvianChica

    February 14, 2013 at 3:00 pm Reply

    Found this recipe on pinterest and my hubby is in LOVE! I did have a qutie a bit of PB left over, but in my house it was devoured after all the cookie dough was used up! I made a decent size cookie and ended up with 20. Awesome recipe!

  • Anonymous

    December 8, 2013 at 12:34 pm Reply

    The dough was very dry to the point I couldn’t work with it. It just kept cracking. These sounded so good so I was disappointed. I’m going to try them again with a different chocolate cookie dough recipe.

  • Robyn

    December 14, 2013 at 3:22 pm Reply

    These are so good! I made them today to freeze for Christmas, but I am going to have to stop myself from eating them all! I ended up with a lot of the peanut butter filling so I might cut that part of the recipe in half next time. Made exactly 30 cookies as previous posters said it would. It is a bit time consuming to assemble them all but well worth it.

  • YogaBear824

    September 28, 2014 at 7:42 pm Reply

    My husband and I just made these. They do take a bit of time to make, but they are well worth the effort! I intended them for a work party tomorrow, but am worried they will not make it there after our taste test! They are delicious! The cookie is moist throughout (but the peanut butter is not gooey or runny as I worried it may be). It is the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter. The only thing to note is that the recipe yields 11 more peanut butter fillings than chocolate cookie.

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