Kari Wagner shares her recipe for Chocolate-Peanut Butter Melting Snowmen cookies for Seacrest Country Day School‘s cookie exchange.
For Kari Wagner, the past few years have been an adventure in desserts. “My daughter and I like to create things. We’ll paint together, cook together. We have that commonality,” she says. The two experimented with potato candies and no-bake cookies for the first cookie exchanges she co-hosted, but had less-than-desirable results. “Those were awful, they looked awful—never doing those again,” Wagner says. But she knew she found a winner with the delicious peanut butter-chocolate melting snowmen. Wagner smiles as she recalls her daughter pointing out how the cookies were also appropriate because snowmen would indeed melt in Florida.
“This recipe is based on one I found in Better Homes and Gardens. The right timing is essential when placing the peanut butter cups (the snowmen’s hats) because you want them to stay put but also not melt. If you don’t have it at home, vanilla-flavored candy coating can be found in most standard grocer’s baking aisles or bought online.”
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Melting Snowmen
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. baking soda
- 1 egg
- 3 Tbsp. milk
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 pound vanilla-flavored candy coating, coarsely chopped
- 20 bite-size chocolate-covered peanut butter cups
- Orange and brown sprinkles
Method:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat shortening and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Beat in the granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda until combined. Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla until combined. Beat in the cocoa powder, and as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour.
- Shape dough into twenty 1 3/4 –inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until edges are just firm. Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
- Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Place cooled cookies on prepared baking sheet.
- In a medium microwave-safe bowl, microwave candy coating on 50 percent power for 2 ½ minutes to 3 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring every thirty seconds. Spoon melted coating over each cookie to cover cookie and resemble melted snow. While coating is still tacky, add a peanut butter cup for a top hat and decorate with sprinkles to resemble snowman faces. The timing has to be perfect. You don’t want to add the peanut butter cups when the cookie is too hot, but you also need to do it when the candy topping is still soft.
- Let stand until set. Store in a single layer in an airtight container for up to three days or freeze for up to three months.
Cookie photography by Vanessa Rogers
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