In the mood for peanut butter but don’t want to make dozens of cookies? Bake up these irresistible small batch Peanut Butter Cookie Cups! Ideal for cookie trays and gift giving.
Here we are, the final new recipe for my Cookie Tray Series – a small batch of Peanut Butter Cookie Cups.
A small batch? For a cookie tray? Let me explain.
Since these cookie cups can be enjoyed all year round, I wanted to focus on making a small batch recipe; after all, you’ve told me time and again you love my recipes for two. I mean, who doesn’t crave peanut butter cookies on a random Wednesday night in April? Just me?
However, since it’s cookie season, I doubled the recipe for making the best cookie tray. Best of both worlds, amiright?
Regardless of how many you’re making, no holiday season is complete without them. I’ve been making these peanut butter cookie cups since forever, probably since I discovered the recipe on the back of the peanut butter cup bag.
If you’ve never had them before, first of all scroll down to the recipe and run to the kitchen right now!
Ahem. I mean keep reading my post to find out what they are. They are soft peanut butter cookies made in a mini muffin tin and topped with a mini peanut butter cup. A peanut butter lover’s dream.
These cookie cups are so good, you can give them as a gift, and it’d be voted the best gift of the night.
Cutting the recipe down to less than a dozen cookies did have its challenges.
Anyone who makes small batch recipes will tell you their number 1 problem is the egg. How *do* you cut an egg in half? You can’t. That’s where you have to decide – do I use only the egg yolk, only the egg whites, or do I increase the dry ingredients to balance the extra liquid?
Normally I adjust the dry ingredients to not waste an egg, but in this case using an egg yolk did the trick. Of course you’re stuck with an egg white, but you can make these recipes using leftover egg whites.
To make these cookies more festive for Christmas, just add sprinkles! Wait about 15 minutes after adding the peanut butter cups. The chocolate melts enough for the sprinkles to stick.
Looking for a peanut butter free option? Try my Fudge Filled Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups or Eggnog Sugar Cookie Cups.
Items You May Need (affiliate links):
Peanut Butter Cookie Cups (Small Batch)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 mini peanut butter cups
- Sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 8 cups in a mini muffin pan.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth and creamy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla until incorporated.
- Gradually beat in the flour mixture.
- Scoop the dough into 1 tablespoon balls then place in the pan. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and puffed.
- Immediately place a peanut butter cup in the center of each one, gently pushing down. Cool for 30 minutes then remove from the pan and cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
- If adding sprinkles, let cool 15 minutes, top with sprinkles, then cool another 15 minutes before removing.
Notes
If doubling the recipe, use 1 whole egg instead of 2 egg yolks.
Carolina Girl says
Happy Monday. Yum! I’ve been waiting for this. Thank you.
Carla says
Hope it was worth the wait! :D
Kayle (The Cooking Actress) says
ah yes-these are one of the cookies I always make a beeline for during the holidays! There’s peanut butter sooo duh :P
Carla says
I had a feeling you’d love these ;)
Karen says
These look like heaven!
Carla says
Thank you! Let me know if you try them.
V says
Only made 6 and the dough was very dry. Seems like too much flour. We’ll see how they turn out. In the oven now
Carla says
How did the cookies turn out?
V says
They tasted great but were kind of stodgy due to the dryness of the dough (plus i probably rolled them a little larger than 1 inch). They also only made 6 cookies
The dough was really crumbly and didn’t mix well after adding flour. Do you think reducing the flour would fix it?
Carla says
Sounds like you only got 6 cookies because you made the dough bigger than 1 inch. As for the dry dough, what kind of peanut butter did you use, what size egg did you use, how did you measure your flour, and was your brown sugar soft or crumbly?
V says
1 large egg (yolk only)
Used skippy natural peanut butter
Used swerve brown sugar (moist and soft) and granulated sugar (kind of dry and powdery…this was probably the issue, but i like my cookies to be sugar free.)
As for the flour, i used the scoop and level method, as i don’t have a scale.
Carla says
Ok I had suspected some of these answers. To ensure your dough isn’t dry:
1 – This recipe is made with standard processed peanut butter. Sometimes natural peanut butter becomes too dry and crumbly because the oil separates. If the peanut butter is dry, then the dough becomes dry.
2 – Can’t speak for sugar substitutes because I don’t use them. If the swerve sugar is dry and powdery, it’s possible it absorbed too much of the moisture in the dough.
3 – Scooping the flour can result in measuring too much flour. You want to spoon the flour into your measuring cup rather than scooping the cup. You can read more here: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-to-measure-flour-the-right-way/
V says
I did use the flour measuring method you described and the natural skippy peanut butter i used doesn’t need mixing and doesn’t separate (or else i wouldn’t bother), so that just leaves the powdery Swerve granulated sweetener.
What would you recommend to moisten cookie dough in the future, if it happens again? Add water or maybe add just a bit less flour? I do like this recipe a lot and these cookies bring back childhood memories, so it would be great to know a way around the issue.
Thanks for talking me through it :)
Carla says
Hmm you can probably add a drop of milk, but I’d be careful not to add too much.