Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie Bites

Need a tasty cookie in a hurry? Want something both different and familiar? Love the whole, "You got chocolate in my peanut butter" flavor combination? Look no further than these quick and easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie Bites! Adapted from my traditional Peanut Butter Thumbprints recipe, this one's even easier. I just put it together last night in a (successful) experiment to be brought to my coworkers this morning. The peanut butter I used is Sunland brand, bought at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and has the chocolate already inside it! (Sunland also makes a variety of other flavored peanut butters that I love, including Banana. Check out their website home page and you'll be greeted by an entertaining Valencia peanut song as well). Or you could always try with Nutella. But to keep the flavors as simple and clean as possible, I stuck with tradition. ("You got peanut butter in my chocolate!')

Ingredients:

1 cup chocolate peanut butter spread
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg


Directions:


1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter sugar and egg, stirring with a fork until all ingredients are well incorporated.

2.) Use your fingers to keep the dough together and form small 1-inch balls by rolling the dough in the palms of your hands. Set on a baking sheet lined with parchment (NOT wax) paper, and flatten slightly to form small discs (or what I like to call "buttons").

3.) Bake for approximately 8 minutes until the edges of the cookies just begin to harden. Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

That's it! You're done! Wasn't that easy? Next time I might try pressing some kind of white chocolate or other candy in the center to make a "thumbprint." Or see how the recipe turns out with that banana peanut butter....