Chocolate Peanut Butter Shortbread Bites

Two of my favorite flavors come together for a wonderful treat: Chocolate Peanut Butter Shortbread Bites. Great for an after-school snack or a delicious holiday treat.

It’s December 2.  WAIT!  How on earth did that happen?  Life is going WAY to fast these days.  Allison and I knocked out quite a bit of Christmas shopping on Black Friday, my husband put up lights on the house over the weekend, and we are going to work on decorating the house this week!  I’m really looking forward to decorating a new house this year!!

But what I’m looking forward to, even more, is……. the official cookie-baking season!!  Ok, maybe not “official” but I’m calling it the official cookie-baking season! and let’s be honest……..you can never have too many cookie recipes!

Steve is especially excited about this recipe!  you see, he could live off peanut butter alone…….ok, he actually bleeds peanut butter and coke.  If you or someone you know is a  fan of chocolate and peanut butter you are going to want this recipe!  It’s really pretty simple and you only need a handful of ingredients.

I’ve always been a fan of shortbread cookies.  They just sort of melt in your mouth.  Pure buttery, sweet goodness.  If you haven’t made shortbread before, then you are in for a treat! Shortbread requires very few ingredients but yields a tender cookie with maximum flavor. There are no eggs or baking soda, just flour, sugar, salt, butter and in this case, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter! (the chips and shortening are for the top of the cookies) 

UPDATE Oct 2018: Unfortunately this Skippy no longer makes this chocolate peanut butter, but I did find another dark chocolate peanut butter on Amazon.

Can I just eat the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Spread with a spoon, please?! Imagine if you mixed some dark chocolate in with your peanut butter!..It’s not a hazelnut spread.

While measuring out the one cup of chocolate peanut butter for the recipe, I realized that I had never shared this little tip for measuring sticky ingredients like peanut butter or shortening.

Kitchen Tip for measuring sticky semi-solids:  Simply line your measuring cup with plastic wrap, fill with peanut butter (works with shortening as well).  Then lift the plastic wrap out of the cup and dump peanut butter into a bowl.  No sticky measuring cup to clean either!!

While we are talking cookie tips, I have a few more to share.

When rolling out any kind of cookie dough, I like to use powdered sugar to dust my work surface (instead of flour)

To roll out dough to an even  1/4″ thickness, I place a 1/4″ balsa stick on each side of my dough (you can get these at most hobby/craft stores)

Then place a piece of waxed paper over the dough to avoid any sticking to my rolling pin.

Remove waxed paper and you will end up with a nice even piece of cookie dough ready to cut!

For these shortbread bites, I used a 2-inch scalloped square cookie cutter, but you can use any shape you’d like, just try to keep the size close to 2 inches.

Place the cookie cutouts about an inch apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet, and bake for 14-15 minutes at 350˚.

After they cool completely I just melted some peanut butter chips and shortening as well as some chocolate chips and shortening to spread on top of the cookies.

Chocolate and peanut butter are made for each other.

And who can say no to a chocolate peanut butter shortbread cookie? I sure can’t!

What’s your favorite kind of peanut butter cookie?

Be sure to check out the first-ever Skippy Peanut Butter virtual peanut butter cookie exchange on Facebook for more peanut butter cookie recipes and fun!

More Peanut Butter Recipes you might enjoy:

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Fudge

Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie Pie

Buckeye Peanut Butter Fudge Cake

Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Shortbread Bites

Yield: 4.5 dozen
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes

A melt in your mouth peanut butter and chocolate shortbread cookie.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup dark chocolate peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup peanut butter chips
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon shortening

Instructions

1. Sift sugar, flour, and salt into a large bowl and set aside.
2. Using a large bowl and electric mixer, cream butter and peanut butter until thoroughly combined. Add vanilla and continue beating.
3. Slowly add flour mixture and beat until the dough comes together and is no longer dry and crumbly.
4. Remove mixer and form dough into a ball with hands and knead until smooth. Divide it into two equal pieces, and pat into flat disks. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for about an hour, or longer.
5. When you are ready to roll out, heat oven to 350 degrees
6. On lightly floured surface (I use powdered sugar to flour my surface), roll out dough until about 1/4" thick. Using 2" cookie cutter, cut dough into desired shape. Place cut-out cookies 1 inch apart on parchment lined cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 14-15 minutes. Centers should be set, but cookies will be soft (they firm up as they cool). Cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. In a small microwave-safe bowl microwave peanut butter chips and 1/2 tablespoon of the shortening on 50 percent power about 30 seconds, or until melted, stirring after 30 seconds.. Use another microwave safe bowl and same method to melt chocolate chips and 1/2 tablespoon of shortening.
9. Spread half of the cookies with melted peanut butter mixture and the other half with melted chocolate mixture. Drizzle cookies with the mixture opposite of the spread.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 54
Serving Size: 1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 101
Total Fat: 7g
Saturated Fat: 3g
Trans Fat: 0g
Unsaturated Fat: 3g
Cholesterol: 9mg
Sodium: 42mg
Carbohydrates: 9g
Fiber: 1g
Sugar: 4g
Protein: 2g

Nutrition information is estimated based on the ingredients and cooking instructions as described in each recipe and is intended to be used for informational purposes only. Please note that nutrition details may vary based on methods of preparation, origin, and freshness of ingredients used and are just estimates. We encourage, especially if these numbers are important to you, to calculate these on your own for most accurate results.

Disclaimer:  This post was sponsored by Skippy Peanut Butter.  As always, all views and opinions, and love of peanut butter are my own.