Every year we try out a new cookie for the holidays. This year, we went with these peanut butter cup cookie bites. WOW! They are everything you love about a soft peanut butter cookie, with a gooey peanut butter cup center.
While these are a great cookie option for any time of the year, we decided to decorate these with red and green icing for Christmas. They turned out so good that we didn’t have any leftovers to share. Looks like I’ll be making another batch before the holidays!
Before I share our peanut butter cup cookie bites recipe, let me share a few tips.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to freeze your miniature peanut butter cups ahead of time. If you try to push them into the warm cookie at room temperature, they will likely fall apart or melt in your hands. Trust me on this one!
If you are planning to decorate these for Christmas, I have a little hack for you. You don’t have to be an expert baker to make these. Just grab yourself some cookie icing packs at the store. I found these Betty Crocker ready to use icing at our local Dollar General. I picked up green and red, but they had a variety of colors for you to choose from.
Always make sure that your egg and butter are room temperature. They blend better in your batter and will make your treats turn out so much better!
Can I use a different chocolate instead of peanut butter cups?
Sure! We’ve made them with Hershey’s kisses, if you like them with a little less peanut butter. You can use any type of chocolate that you love, that goes well with peanut butter. Just remember to freeze them!
Can you use crunchy peanut butter for this recipe?
While I’m sure you could, I haven’t tried to make them with crunchy peanut butter, so I can’t say whether or not it will affect the recipe. If you do try it, please let me know how they turn out!
What type of scoop should I use?
I use a small/medium cookie scoop similar to this one. I grab a scoop of batter and then scrape it against the bowl so that all of the peanut butter cup cookie bites are equal in size.
What if I don’t have a mini muffin pan?
If you don’t have a mini muffin pan and don’t want to purchase one (I found this one for under $10 and it’s excellent quality and non-stick), you can use a baking sheet. Your cookie bites will not be shaped the same as the ones in my photos. They will likely be more flat like a cookie, but should still work!
I’ve tried to show the steps in the photos above for you, to make it a bit easier to make these peanut butter cup cookie bites.
Step 1: Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda.
Step 2: What the sifted mixture will look like.
Step 3: Whisk butter, both sugars, and peanut butter together until fully combined.
Step 4: What step 3 will look like when it’s complete.
Step 5: Add the egg, milk, and vanilla and whisk until fully combined.
Step 6: What step 5 will look like when it’s complete.
Step 7: Add your flour mixture to the bowl.
Step 8: Mix together until fully combined.
Step 9: Using a small cookie scoop, scoop batter into a mini muffin pan.
Step 10: Your cookie bites will look like this when you remove them from the oven.
Step 11: As soon as you remove the cookie bites from the oven, press a miniature peanut butter cup into each one.
Step 12: Decorate with icing to make your peanut butter cup cookie bites festive!
peanut butter cup cookie bites
PrintChristmas Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Bites
- Total Time: 23 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
Description
These peanut butter cup cookie bites are the perfect bite of peanut butter and chocolate. Decorate them with green and red icing and they are your new favorite Christmas cookie!
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp iodized salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup softened butter, unsalted
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 24 mini peanut butter cups
- red and green icing for decoration (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375º, place the miniature peanut butter cups in the freezer and take the butter and egg out of the refrigerator.
- Sift flour, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl.
- If the butter is not softened, place it in the microwave for 15-30 seconds. You don’t want it melted, just soft. Place the sugars, butter, and peanut butter in a stand mixer bowl and mix until combined.
- Add egg, milk, and vanilla and mix until combined.
- Remove your stand mixer bowl and add in the flour mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon just until fully combined. Don’t over mix.
- Using a small cookie scoop, place one scoop of cookie batter into each slot in your mini muffin pan.
- Bake for 8 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make sure to unwrap your miniature peanut butter cups. If you finish before the oven timer goes off, place the peanut butter cups back into the freezer.
- As soon as the cookies are ready, remove them from the oven and push one miniature peanut butter cup into each cookie bite. It’s important to do this while the cookies are still warm.
- Allow the cookie bites to cool for 30 min – 1 hour.
- If you are decorating them for the holidays, take out your icing and decorate any way you’d like! Allow the icing to harden before removing the cookie bites from the pan.
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 8 min
If you try our peanut butter cup cookie bites, we’d love to hear your thoughts. If you take a picture or share it on social media, don’t forget to tag us! Don’t forget to check out all of our family-friendly recipes!
I love baking cookies during the holidays! These peanut butter cup cookies look absolutely delicious and I really like that they are so easy to prepare.
These came out so festive-looking! And I’d never thought about freezing the PB cups ahead of time, but it makes total sense – thx for the super tip!
Looking very festive. Holiday colors on the table are a nice addition.
Just when I thought a PB cup couldn’t get any better! I love the festive touches you added to them.
I love doing cookie cups and peanut butter is my absolute fav, but my fiance hates it. But it’s a good way of making sure he doesn’t steal any x
Yessss, these are just what the Holiday doctor ordered…lol They look so delicious!
These peanut butter cookies look sooo delicious. I am going to try this recipe over the Holiday with my kids! Peanut butter is already our favorite!