Surprise Cookies

These absolutely delicious cookies are a huge hit with just about everyone. I usually make them for gift baskets at Christmas but they are wonderful any time of year. The original recipe I used was called "Santa's Snickers Brand Surprises" but I found you can use just about any bite size chocolate in them. My personal favorite is Dove Dark Chocolate Promises so I stick to those for the most part. Here's what you start with:

2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 pkg chocolate bite size candies (Dove Promises, Snickers, Milky Way, whatever you like)



1. Combine the butter, peanut butter and sugars using a mixer on a medium to low setting until light and fluffy.
2. Slowly add eggs and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Then mix in flour, salt, and baking soda.
3. Cover and chill dough for 2-3 hours.
4. Unwrap candies.
5. Remove dough from refrigerator. Divide into 1 Tbsp pieces and flatten.
6. Place a candy in the center of each piece of dough.
7. Form the dough into a ball around the candy.
8. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
9. Let cookies cool on a baking rack or wax paper. (Holiday hint: Spruce up these cookies by rolling in powdered sugar and/or drizzling with melted chocolate)
Makes about 2 dozen cookies that look like this:

They are ridiculously good! A baking tip I used for the first time last Christmas was lining all my cookie sheets with parchment paper. Then you simply slide the whole sheet off to the baking rack for the cookies to cool and slap a new one on for the next batch of cookies. No mess, very little fuss!