Snickerdoodles Hidden with Peanut Butter...

One of my families' holiday traditions is a Cookie Exchange. Friends are invited over to the house and show up with their favorite Christmas cookie recipe and ingredients. Everyone makes their batch of cookies together in the kitchen and then the cookies get baked off. When parting ways, everyone exchanges cookies leaving with a whole plate of various holiday cookies! This is a recipe would be perfect for a time like this!

Peanut Butter is hidden in the center!!!!

Cream this mixture: to whip air into the batter

Notice it is fluffy and light in color. Well "creamed'

Dry ingredients

The snickerdoodle dough

Flatten the dough balls into the 1/4" disks.

Spoon a small dollop of peanut butter on each disk of dough.

Place another disk on top of the peanut butter and press the edges well!

Roll in Cinnamon-Sugar mixture.

Perfectly baked to light golden color.

Snickerdoodles Hidden with Peanut Butter

Author: Brenna Bowers

Serving: 24 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 ½ cup white sugar

2 eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 ¾ cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar*

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Filling:

¼ cup creamy peanut butter

Cinnamon-sugar Mixture:

3 Tablespoons sugar

3 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions:

Cream (Tip 1) butter, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla. Add flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; mix until just combined. Place plastic wrap over the dough and chill for 1 hour (Tip 2).

Roll 1½ teaspoon size dough balls in your palms and then flatten into a disk (about ¼” thick). Add a ½ teaspoon of peanut butter in the center. Roll and flatten another disk of dough to place on top of the dough with the peanut butter. Purse the edges of the dough well to trap the peanut butter into the middle. Roll into the cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat the outside. Place onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 9 minutes.

Tip 1: To “cream” means to whip the batter with hand beaters or a whisk by hand until the batter becomes lighter in color and fluffy. This is a process of incorporating air into your batter.

Tip 2: It is important that you chill the batter if you want your cookies to end up chewy and fluffy. It is important that the butter is firm before you put the cookies into the oven for baking. This will keep the structure of the cookie as it bakes and the end result will be a deliciously fluffy yet chewy cookie.

*Cream of Tartar: There is not a good substitute for this product. Do not even try substituting with baking powder or baking soda. I tried and the cookies ended up with a crumbly texture and far from chewy and soft like I prefer.