Caramel Peanut Butter Cookie Cups

I really like making cookie cups, and there are so many possibilities for different flavor combinations. This cookie would actually be good to make after Halloween, if one were to have left over candy. There is a lot of different components in these cookies, and honestly you could adapt the elements to whatever you have on hand. The caramel is essential, but you could use any candy. This version uses regular and white chocolate peanut butter cups. I’ve never had the white chocolate ones before!

When I make cookie cups, I usually use a mini muffin pan. This recipe uses a regular sized muffin cup, which makes for large cookies. The original recipe makes 24 cookies, and I did, but I had enough dough left over to make another dozen. Of course, in writing up this recipe, I realized that I used too much brown sugar, but hey, these are super sweet anyway, so it seemed not to be much of an issue. These are very gooey, tasty things, and now I need to figure out what to make with the remaining cookie dough I have left!

Caramel Peanut Butter Cookie Cups

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

24 square caramels

8 oz Mini Peanut Butter Cups

8 oz White Chocolate Mini Peanut Butter Cups

1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 12-cup regular-sized muffin pans with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl beat the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and sugar on medium until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat again on medium. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Using a 1-1/2 tablespoon scoop, scoop the dough into the muffin cups. Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the muffin pan.

Partially bake the cookies until the edges start to brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven. In each muffin cup, place a caramel square, then two mini peanut butter cups and two white chocolate peanut butter cups. Sprinkle each cup with some peanuts.

Return the cookies to the oven and bake for an additional 4-5 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Using a flat metal spatula, loosen each cookie from the muffin pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from This is Not Diet Food