Chocolate Peanut Butter Yin Yangs

Not exactly a yin yang, but close.  And the idea is sound because it's hard to figure out where the chocolate ends and the peanut butter begins.  Which is fine, because we all know that the chocolate peanut butter combo is superb (and if you didn't know that, now you do.  It's truth.)  Pretty easy to make from a packaged mix, too.  Yup, one mix but two flavors.  It's all about knowing how to divide and conquer, quite literally.  Split the dough in half and flavor half with chocolate and the other with peanut butter and there you have it.  These are a soft cookie with lots of flavor--so good I ended up making two batches in under a week.  Relax, they were for sharing!

I had to make extra of these for my Foodie Pen Pal.  I sent a package including these yummy cookies to Michelle at Tried and True Recipes.  Go visit her and see what else I sent her.  If you want to know more about Foodie Pen Pals or join in the fun of getting a package full of fun stuff from a fellow foodie and sending one of your own to another foodie, visit Lindsay's blog at The Lean Green Bean.  I was luck enough to receive an awesome package from Rinnie at Rinnie Eats.  I immediately knew I'd like Rinnie because she reads The Bloggess.  If you don't know about me and my love of The Bloggess, check it out here on my other blog.  I'll wait.

You're back!  See, awesomeness.  So when I received this package with all of The Bloggess' friends depicted on the outside, I was so tickled I didn't even want to open the box!

But I did and I'm so glad for it.  Rinnie included some lovely treats an annotated them!  She sent me delicious Garrett's Popcorn, a Chicago staple, in cheese and caramel which was the best I've ever had.  She also include the fixin's for s'mores since National S'mores Day is in August, but with an amped up milk chocolate truffle bar.  She also included homemade trail mix for National Trail Mix Day (today!) which has been a lovely little snack to keep in my desk as work.  And she also included a jar of Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter, which is awesome and delicious.  I would lick it off of anything, but I think ultimately I might just have to make some cupcakes or something.

Now, a note about cookie butter.  So, being a food blogger and a woman obsessed with Pinterest, I am aware of the Biscoff Spread phenomenon (Speculoos is Trader Joe's version of Biscoff Spread and a bit different).  Dave, however, didn't understand the concept of cookie butter.  When I explained to think of it like peanut butter, but just mashed up cookie instead of peanuts, he said, "But a peanut is like an ingredient.  You have to make the cookie.  You can't just get a cookie off the cookie tree."  Despite his confusion, he agreed it was delicious.  Guess I'll soon be on the cookie butter band wagon, featuring this is a treat for you soon!

Whew, so back to these cookies.  This recipe comes from Crazy for Crust and Dorothy couldn't have made it easier.  As I said, I made them twice. The first time I used a yellow cake mix, but the second I used a white cake mix (since that's what I had on hand).  No difference in flavor, but the cookies from the yellow cake mix had a touch darker peanut butter shade than the white cake (which completely makes sense).  I ended up with a few extra peanut butter cookies both times.  When I divided the dough, the first time I eyeballed it, the second time I weighed it.  The first time I had one extra peanut butter ball without a chocolate match.  The second time I had 4 extra peanut butter balls.  Go figure.  I would recommend rolling out your balls of one flavor or the other before you merge the two flavors though.  You'll be much more even in the end.  Easy to make--great cookies for little helper hands, and a perfect after school snack.  Make these cookies, share them with friends, or hoard the chocolatey-peanut buttery goodness all for yourself.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Yin Yangs

Ingredients

1 boxed cake mix, yellow or white
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 ounces semi sweet chocolate, melted and cooled
2 Tablespoons brown sugar, divided
2 Tablespoons water, divided

In a large bowl, use a hand held mixer to beat cake mix, oil, eggs and vanilla until combined.

Divide dough in half, placing one half into a new bowl.  To one bowl, add peanut butter, 1 Tablespoon brown sugar and 1 Tablespoon water.  Beat until combined.  Set aside.

To the other bowl, add melted chocolate and remaining brown sugar and water, beating until combined.

Roll Tablespoons of the peanut butter dough (note: I used a small cookie scoop, leveled) into balls.  After all the peanut butter dough is rolled, add a Tablespoon of chocolate dough (note: again, I used a small cookie scoop, leveled) and press together, rolling slightly into a ball to make the two sides stick.

Arrange finished dough balls on a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet, leaving an inch or two in between for the cookies to spread.

Flatten balls slightly with the palm of your hand, then use a fork to make a cross-hatch pattern on the tops of the cookies.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are set and the peanut butter sides are gently golden.  Turn baking sheet 180 degrees halfway through baking. If using more than one sheet at a time, rotate positions in the oven for more even baking.

Cool on pan for a few minutes before moving to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 24-30 cookies.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

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