Nothing beats the added flavor and texture contrast of a gooey filling inside a perfectly crisp, chewy cookie.
This chocolaty recipe is one of my absolute favorites! The cookie itself is made from a rich chocolate dough that is studded with semisweet chocolate chips throughout. The filling is made from melted chocolate and peanut butter (or any nut/seed butter of choice!) mixed together.
Here are a few helpful steps to take to ensure that your stuffed cookies come out perfectly-mouthwatering every time:
Freeze your filling. While there are different approaches to filling cookies, I like to melt the filling ingredients together into a smooth mixture, then freeze dollops of the mixture until firm. This makes it easy to keep the filling in the center of the dough while stuffing the dough, without a drippy mess!
Portion and shape your dough before taking the filling out of the fridge. This will help you to fill the cookies quickly and efficiently, ensuring that the filling won’t melt from sitting out for too long. To make 8 large cookies, I like to first divide the dough into 8 even mounds, then divide each mound in half. From there, I flatten each of the 16 mounds into disc shapes. From here, all you need to do to fill the cookies is top the center of 8 discs with a filling circle, cover with the bare dough discs, then press the edges together and shape into dough balls.
Refrigerate or freeze your dough balls before baking. This helps to prevent the cookies from spreading too much while baking, keeping the filling centered and the cookies chewy and delicious!
Double Chocolate Nut Butter Stuffed Cookies
Ingredients
Filling
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, cashew butter, or sunflower seed butter
- 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Dough
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1 cup cane sugar
- 1 flax egg
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour gluten-free 1-1 blend if needed
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup semisweet or white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt the filling ingredients together in a double boiler or in the microwave, then stir together until smooth. Scoop 8 heaping tablespoons of the mixture onto the parchment-lined baking sheet, an inch or so apart (depending on how runny/thick your nut/seed butter is, the filling scoops may spread- this is ok, as they can be broken and layered for filling the cookies). Place in the freezer for about 1 hour (you may also do this ahead and keep the filling scoops in the freezer until ready to use).
- Meanwhile, make your cookie dough. In a large bowl, beat together the room temperature coconut oil with the sugar until the mixture is creamy, then beat in the flax egg and vanilla. Gently mix in the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt until a uniform dough is formed. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Divide the dough into 8 equal-sized mounds on a baking sheet. Divide one of the dough mounds into 2 equal pieces, and flatten them like a pancake with your hands. Break one of the frozen scoops of filling in half/quarters, and layer it onto the center of one piece of flattened cookie dough (if your filling came thick, you won’t need to break and layer it, just place it as is). Place the other dough half on top over the filling, pinch the bottom and top edges of the dough together to ensure that the filling is fully and evenly wrapped inside the dough, then gently press the dough into a ball. Repeat this process with the remaining dough balls and frozen filling scoops. Refrigerate or freeze the prepared dough balls for a few hours or up to 1 day ahead (you may also freeze them to bake up to 1 month later). This helps to keep the cookies thick, prevents the filling from oozing out, and makes the dough extra flavorful.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Arrange the cookie dough balls a few inches apart on two large baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for 14-18 minutes (or a bit longer if baking from frozen), until lightly golden and firm around the edges. Allow to firm up on the pan for 10 minutes, then gently transfer to a wire rack to cool.
