My grandmother’s legendary peanut butter surprise cookies, Shrewsbury cookies, honey rice bubble squares and hedgehog slices are; without doubt, some of the earliest childhood joys that I remember so vividly and fondly. In fact; 50 years later we are still making them; just like Nana did. Here’s how.

Image via Wikipedia

Ingredients

• 36 Chilled Mini Peanut Butter Cups
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1½ Level Cups of All-Purpose Flour
• 1 Cup of Packed Light Brown Sugar
• ½ Cup of Creamy Peanut Butter
• 1/3 Cup of Granulated Sugar
• 4 Tablespoons of Room Temperature Unsalted Butter
• 1 Teaspoon of Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
• ¼ Teaspoon of Freshly Ground Sea Salt

Method

1. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Place 36 mini peanut butter cups onto a large plate, cover and then transfer the plate complete with the 36 mini peanut butter cups to your refrigerator to chill.

Surprise Cookie Batter

1. With all 36 mini peanut butter cups now in the refrigerator chilling we can move on to preparing the peanut butter surprise cookie batter.

Wet Ingredients

1. Add the peanut butter and the unsalted butter to a mixing bowl. Now use a handheld mixer, blender, food processor or lots of elbow grease to cream the peanut butter and unsalted butter until the peanut butter/unsalted butter mixture becomes velvety smooth and a little fluffy.
2. Now add the brown sugar to the butter mixture and continue beating until all ingredients are well and truly combined (scrape down your mixing bowl as and when needed).
3. Next up; add the eggs and the pure vanilla extract to your butter mixture. Continue beating butter mixture until all ingredients are fully combined.

Dry Ingredients

In another mixing bowl add in the all-purpose flour, the baking soda and the freshly ground sea salt. Using a whisk bring these dry ingredients together.

Combining

1. We are now going to bring together the wet and dry ingredients by adding the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients (butter mixture).
2. Furthermore; this will be done in three batches. That is to say that we will add one third of the dry ingredients mixture at a time to the wet ingredients mixture. Each batch must be thoroughly combined before moving on to the next batch. In this way we will add, blend and evenly combine wet and dry ingredients.
3. Set mixer/food processor to a low speed setting and continue mixing wet ingredients mixture. Now you can begin to gradually beat in the dry ingredients in batches as outlined above.
4. Once all of the dry ingredients have been combined with the wet ingredients continue slowly beating the peanut butter surprise cookie mixture until a pliant non-crumbly dough forms.
5. Spread granulated sugar over a dinner plate.
6. Use a tablespoon to scoop off portions of peanut butter surprise cookies dough. Work each dough portion into a ball.
7. Carefully roll each peanut butter surprise cookie dough ball in the granulated sugar taking considerable care to ensure that each dough ball is thoroughly coated with granulated sugar.
8. Place each granulated sugar coated dough ball onto a non-stick insulated baking sheet. Arrange dough balls so that they are roughly 2 inches apart.
9. Place baking sheet and dough balls into preheated oven and bake until the cookies begin to become slightly puffed up (approximately 7 minutes but will vary depending upon your oven).
10. Remove baking sheet with peanut butter surprise cookies from oven and place on firm work surface.

Image via Wikipedia

Mini Peanut Butter Cup Insertion

1. With the mini peanut butter cups satisfactorily chilled take them out of the refrigerator and place them on your work bench next to the baking sheet with the partially cooked peanut butter surprise cookies on it.
2. Select one of the chilled mini peanut butter cups and remove its wrapper. Now press it into the center of one of the peanut butter surprise cookies. Repeat this process until all 36 chilled mini peanut butter cups have been inserted into a peanut butter surprise cookie.
3. Return cookies to oven and continue baking until the cookies become golden brown in color and the chocolate has just begun to melt (around 6 to 7 minutes).
4. Remove peanut butter surprise cookies from oven and allow them to cool while still on the baking sheet for 10 minutes or so. Now transfer the individual peanut butter surprise cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Once fully cooled transfer peanut butter surprise cookies to an airtight jar for storage.
5. Tip: I saw on Martha Stewart Living that adding some marshmallows to the container in which you are storing your peanut butter surprise cookies will go a long way to preventing your peanut butter surprise cookies from drying out.

Serving Suggestions

• Peanut butter surprise cookies are great consumed with a cup of coffee or tea during a work break or peacefully enjoyed quite moment whenever you get the time to spend a few moments collecting your thoughts and reflecting upon life in general.
• Pack a peanut butter surprise cookie in with a cut lunch for work, school, day care, a day’s outing, picnics etc.
• Taking some peanut butter surprise cookies along with you whenever you are visiting with family or friends will see your popularity skyrocket. They also make great travel snacks to be consumed en route.
• We also like to make large batches of peanut butter surprise cookies for local community fund raising and charity works including periodic distribution of over 300 cookies to the residents of a local aged person’s hospice.

Yield: These will yield approximately 3 dozen (36) Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

Preparation Time: 20 Minutes

Cooking Time: 30 Minutes

Alleviating/Diminishing Travel Sickness – Traveling long distances at speed on an empty stomach is one of the surest ways to trigger an attack of travel/motion sickness in those predisposed/susceptible to this type of ailment. Consumption of peanut butter surprise cookies while in transit can help alleviate the worst travel sickness symptoms. Prevention is as always far better than a cure. Enjoy!