Self-Righteousness 'n Gas: Peanut Butter Chocolate Puffs

You know when you hear the description "melt in your mouth"? These little bundles of joy do exactly that... Baked to perfection, if you like chocolate and peanut butter, I think you might want to give these a go.

They came about after a friend posted on facebook that she was having Nutella on waffles. Not to be left out of the loop, I frantically scoured the interwebz for a homemade nutella recipe. Surprisingly, it's already vegan and really simple. Not cheap, as filberts/hazelnuts aren't native to Florida (I miss you Oregon!) but I'm sure they will be enjoyed. I will do my best to keep the cost in mind and not devour the whole batch.

But I am getting ahead of myself...

So, for the rest of the morning and into the afternoon I was thinking of peanut butter and chocolate--logical leap. I had just bought a jar of peanut butter, and it called to me from the pantry. I didn't have chocolate chips but what I did have was cocoa powder. Chocolate cookies... peanut butter cookies... swirl them together! Yes!!

Success. My first taste tester said they were effin' delicious. Even Stitch was interested! I appealed to another species, now that's pretty cool.

I'd like to pretend that these are also somewhat healthy. They aren't insanely sweet, I seriously reduced the amount of sugar that could have gone in there and didn't miss it. I also used applesauce mostly instead of oil. All in all, when consumed in modest quantities, they aren't terrible!

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE PUFFS

makes approximately 48 cookies

CONTENTS

*Peanut Butter half*

1 cup Natural Crunchy Peanut Butter

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

6 TBS flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup applesauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

*Chocolate Half*

2 1/2 TBS apple sauce & 2 TBS oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 TBS ground flax

1/4 cup milk

1 cup flour

1/4 + 2 TBS dark cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt (optional, the PB had salt so I didn't use any)

FASCIST DIRECTIONS

1. Get out two bowls and a small one. In the little bowl, mix the flax and milk, set aside to thicken. In one, mix the wet ingredients for the peanut butter half, then add the dry. Mix well and set aside.

2. In the other bowl, mix the wet ingredients for the chocolate half when the flax/milk combo has thickened up a while.

Then add the dry ingredients and mix well.

You should get a nice, somewhat fluffy chocolate batter/dough concoction.

And a nice, slightly denser peanut butter batter/dough concoction in the other bowl.

3. Heat your oven to 350F and either lightly grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. This was the day I ran out of parchment paper!

I couldn't photograph this mixing part because my hands were too sticky but basically take some of the peanut butter half, some of the chocolate half and roll them together. They will be different consistencies, the chocolate half was lighter and stickier. They should end up smaller than a golf ball... if that helps gauge it... After the first batch I figured out the trick...

Take some of the peanut butter half, roll it up and then flatten it out in the palm of your hand. Then take some of the chocolate half and flatten it against the peanut butter half. Roll the peanut butter bit over the chocolate part and it's good if it's about 2 or 3 times the size of the final dough ball you want to bake. Tear off half or a third, depending on how much you have and roll that part up and you're good! This helps keep the peanut butter part along the outside which holds it all together well.

I had envisioned swirls, but patches work as well.

4. Bake about 10-12 minutes but no more. They will come out soft but will firm up more after they cool. They'll be crumbly though!

There was a collision as I retrieved the first batch from the oven... hit the side of the oven and they went careening forward.

I could honestly hear the faint screeching of peanut butter tires and the mushy crash sound. It was terrible! I promptly consumed them to hide any evidence of the crime.