nutella stuffed peanut butter cookies

I cannot believe it is Monday. Wait, I cannot believe it is the Monday following Spring Break. As in Spring Break is over. Over! I just looked forward to it for so long. Even things most highly anticipated and appreciated cannot be held onto I suppose. So time goes.

On Friday night, Ben finally arrived at the bay house to break up my solitude; I had quite enjoyed the silence and rest, but I honestly did miss my other half. A dear friend reminded me of the analogy made in Plato’s Symposium that humans used to be squat balls with four limbs, happily rolling around. They were then were split by gods with their faces turned outward, and forever missed their other half (until they finally found it and once again felt complete).

As my love language towards others is food, I naturally made husBen and the parents some cookies to show my excitement at their arrival. Ben ate 6 the next day…I guess he liked them.

Nutella stuffed peanut butter cookies

just full of oozy nutella

            ½ cup butter, softened

            ½ cup brown sugar, packed

            2/3 cup sugar

            1 egg

            1 cup peanut butter

            1 tbs milk

            1 tsp vanilla

            1 ¼ cup flour

            ¾ tsp baking soda

            ½ tsp baking powder

            ½ tsp salt

           

            Nutella for stuffing…liberally

           

            Preheat oven to 350. Prep baking sheets with parchment paper or cooking spray. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and beat until smooth. Incorporate peanut butter, milk, and vanilla.

Add in dry ingredients and mix until completely combined. Refrigerate dough 45 minutes.

Using a medium cookie scoop, roll dough into about 2” balls (I fit about 8 per cookie sheet). Also form 8 flat tops for each cookie (use way less dough). Place a forcefull thumbprint in the center of each cookie. Using a spoon, scoop as much Nutella as can fit into each cookie, using your finger to scrape it carefully into the indentation.

Cover the Nutella filled cookie with the flat pieces of dough like a blanket, and lightly flatten each cookie with your palm (careful not to squish out the Nutella). Bake 12-14 minutes until cookies began to turn golden on the edges, but still look slightly unset in the middle. Allow cookies to cool 10 minutes before removing from tray. Eat ‘em up!

Adapted only slightly from alaskafromscratch blog

one of my parents standard poodles- lola

the prized endangered whooping cranes of Rockport, through binoculars