Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Cookies

    O.K., here's February's Chocolate Dessert #2.  Peanut butter and chocolate....a classic combination, and one of my family's favorites.  These cookies are really quick and easy to make and very rich!  They're a great alternative to a cake for a child's birthday party.  Just stack them up attractively on a cake plate, put the appropriate number of candles in some of the tops, and there you go!  Each child gets his own individual dessert!  No cake cutting, no kids complaining that someone else got a bigger piece; you don't even need forks!  These are also a fun treat to pop into a lunchbox (for the kids or the hubby), and a great, quick dessert to make for any get-together. THEY'RE JUST FUN!!    


    

These are all the ingredients you need!

Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Cookies        (makes 12)

      (very slightly adapted from recipe at Picky-Palate.com)



1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
12 mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 1/2 tblsp. heavy cream
Colored Sprinkles or any decoration of your choice

Mix the peanut butter, sugar, and egg together until well combined.

 

Divide the dough evenly between the twelve sections of a mini cheesecake pan. 

Place the pan in a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for 14 minutes.  While baking, unwrap the peanut butter cups.

After 14 minutes, remove the cookies from the oven and press a peanut butter cup down into each one until they're level with the top of the cookie.

    Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Then carefully remove and place on a rack to finish cooling.   Meanwhile,  make the ganache topping:  Place the chocolate chips and heavy cream in a small saucepan and heat gently over med.-low until melted and smooth.  Then, using a spoon, cover the tops of the cookies generously with the ganache.  Add sprinkles or any desired decoration.  Let stand to set chocolate or chill to set quicker.  NOTE:  If you don't have a mini cheesecake pan, or just want to make them bite-size, you can use two mini muffin tins.  Cut the peanut butter cups in half before pressing them into the cookies and only bake for 10 minutes.  Doing it this way will give you 24 bite-size cookies.