These truly are the best black bottom triple peanut butter cookies ever, you guys. Natural peanut butter, peanut butter powder and chopped peanut brittle all work together to bring some serious peanut flavor. The merest scraping of milk chocolate on the backs of the cookies enhances the peanut flavor without overwhelming it.
4oz1 stick unsalted butter at cool room temperature
3.5oz1/2 cup granulated sugar
3.5oz1/2 cup, packed dark brown sugar
Optional .75 oz (1 Tablespoon) sorghum syrup, honey, molasses, or pure maple syrup (I used sorghum)
2teaspoonsvanilla extract
½teaspoonkosher salt
1large egg at cool room temperature
9oz1 cup natural peanut butter (the ingredient list should read just peanuts and salt)
1ozabout 1/3 cup peanut powder such as Jif or PB2
½teaspoonbaking soda
5ozabout 1 cup of flour scooped from the container into the cup and leveled off all-purpose flour
3ozfinely chopped peanut brittle
To Finish and Bake
1cupgranulated sugar
1/2-3/4teaspoonfine sea salt(I keep a container of fine salt that I put through the blender to make it very fine--almost a powder--for making popcorn)
For the Black Bottoms
1-1 ½cupsDark or Milk Coating Chocolatesee Notes for how to make your own
Instructions
In your mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth.
Add the sugars, optional syrup of your choice, vanilla, and salt. Cream on medium speed until smooth and uniform but not necessarily fluffy.
Beat in the egg until completely incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix a few more seconds.
Mix in the peanut butter, peanut powder and baking soda until incorporated, scraping bowl as necessary.
Beat in the flour on low speed until well combined.
Stir in the chopped peanut brittle until evenly distributed.
Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.
To Finish and Bake
When ready to bake, have 3 parchment-lined cookie sheets ready. Place your oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F.
In a gallon zip top bag, mix the sugar and salt together.
Portion your dough into 3/4 oz pieces and roll into balls. (If you don't have a scale--and I really want you to get one--you're looking for balls about 1" in diameter).
Drop the balls, several at a time, into the sugar salt mixture and tilt the bag gently to cover. Place the sugared balls onto the parchment leaving about 1 1/2" between the cookies, and press the balls down slightly to flatten just a bit. Make a cross hatch pattern on top of the cookies with a fork.
Bake in the upper and lower thirds for 5 minutes.
Rotate the pans 180 degrees and switch racks, then bake an additional 5-7 minutes until the cookies are golden brown around the edges.*
Allow to cool on the sheets for a minute or two and then remove to racks to cool completely.
For the Black Bottoms
Once the cookies are completely cool, melt your coating chocolate** and then use a small offset spatula to spread a think coating on the bottoms of the cookies. Place on Silpat*** until the chocolate has completely set, about 15 minutes. Gently remove them from the Silpat--once the chocolate is completely cool, it will not stick to the Silpat. If any chocolate does stick, press the cookies back down and allow to cool a few more minutes before trying again.
Store, well sealed, at room temperature for 3 days or wrap well and freeze for up to a month. Allow cookies to come to room temperature before serving.
Notes
*After you bake the first two sheets, you can move a rack to the center of the oven to bake the third sheet. If you don't have 3 sheets, make sure you run some cold water on one of your pans to cool it back down before lining with parchment and baking the last of the cookies. I baked my cookies for 11 minutes.**If you don't have coating chocolate, you can make your own by melting together 150 grams of chocolate and 15 grams of coconut oil. If you know how to temper chocolate, you can also dip them in/spread them with tempered chocolate. You can use candy melts, but honestly I don't think they taste good. You'll be much better off going with the Chocoley coating chocolate or making your own (and yes, you really do need a scale. Please get one).***If you don't have Silpat, place them chocolate side up on parchment to cool. The coating chocolate probably won't stick to parchment, but just to be safe, chocolate sides up, friends.