Creamy Peanut Butter Bites #58

Creamy Peanut Butter Bites #58 from Better Homes and Gardens 100 Best Cookies Periodical December 2010

I made these with my cooking class I teach this week. The kids all thought they were okay but probably needed to cook longer than recommended. Also we added almost 3/4 a cup of more flour than the recipe suggested because the dough was way too sticky to form into balls. The recipe sounds great but won't be making it into my cookbook.

3/4 cup butter softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
21 bite size chocolate covered peanut butter cups, halved. (kids had a hard time cutting these in half-perhaps we should have froze them first to make it work better)
Unsweetened cocoa powder (optional) Wishing I would have done this to make them taste better

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl combine butter and peanut butter. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until well combined. Beat in flour. If necessary cover and chill dough for 30 minutes or until dough is easy to handle. (dough wasn't easy so we added the extra flour)

Shape dough into 42 balls, each about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Press in halved peanut butter cup into each ball and shape dough around peanut butter cup to enclose. Place cookies 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet (I lined mine with parchment paper).

Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool. If desired sprinkle with cocoa powder. Makes about 42 cookies.