Peanut butter cup cookies with sea salt

I love peanut buttery desserts. And I love Trader Joe's. So there's something beautiful about Trader Joe's Mini Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups. Good when sampled by their lonesome, but particularly tasty when featured as the star ingredient in peanut butter cup cookies with sea salt. I would like to thank the fancy person who thought of topping sweet treats with sea salt...so genius! I adapted a simple peanut butter cookie recipe from here by throwing in loads of teeny melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter cups and generous sprinkles of sea salt to produce a perfectly decadent, soft cookie that is one of our very favorites. So scrumptious, especially when paired with a glass of soymilk or when sandwiching creamy vanilla bean ice cream.






Peanut Butter Cup Cookies with Sea Salt (adapted from this book)

Ingredients:
3/4 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
Pinch sea salt plus extra for topping cookies
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups Trader Joe's Mini Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment. With an electric mixer, beat butter with peanut butter until light, about 2 minutes.
2. Add the granulated and brown sugar and beat to combine well. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix well.
3. With a rubber spatula, stir in flour, a pinch of sea salt, and baking soda until just combined. Add the mini peanut butter cups and stir gently to distribute them well in the batter.
4. Drop by spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet and bake until golden, about 10 minutes.
5. Upon retrieving tray from oven, immediately sprinkle sea salt upon freshly-baked cookies. Cool before serving (with an icy glass of milk or dollop of vanilla ice cream).






I also propose that these irresistible cookies make a sweet gift, especially when packaged prettily. To dress up the freshly baked treat, I used a cardboard box, feedsack, thinly cut fabric strips, a message scrawled on a notebook page scrap, and a vintage apothecary bottle that I uncovered here. The end product is a lovely wrapped package with a fun message in a bottle!