Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Mmmmm peanut butter everything!

Friends, I have a dilemma.

I absolutely LOVE peanut butter cookies. As a kid, my sister and I would make them all the time. They were so easy, required very few ingredients, and our mother would trust us to be able to make them with minimal supervision.

Fast forward sound effects to years later, and I met and married this wonderful dude who is my best friend and husband. He only has one teeny tiny flaw, though. He HATES the aroma of baking peanut butter cookies. I know, right?! Because of this, my enjoyment of peanut butter cookies is limited to those rare occasions when he's not at home.

Like recently! Yay, friends, peanut butter cookies! I didn't want to make the usual, I wanted to make over-the-top-peanut-butter-awesomeness-in-a-cookie. These are oatmeal peanut butter cookies, with chopped, roasted peanuts, peanut butter chips, and sandwiched around the creamiest, peanut-butteriest peanut butter frosting ever. I am dying over these, they are so good. I keep them in the freezer, and that makes them even better, if you can believe it.

Try one of these Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies – frozen! Wow!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies
Based on this recipe from All Recipes
Makes 8 large sandwich cookies

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup chopped roasted peanuts
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1 cup peanut butter chips (if you can’t find these, substitute 1 cup of chopped, roasted peanuts)
1 cup large flake oats

Filling:
3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1 cup icing sugar
3-5 tablespoons heavy cream

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. 
2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set aside. 
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat together butter, peanut butter, and both sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and mix until just combined. With mixer on low speed, slowly add dry ingredients until just combined. Add oats and chips and stir until just combined. 
4. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop about 2 tablespoons worth of dough and roll into a ball. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and just starting to brown. About 2 minutes before they’re done, flatten cookies gently with a spatula. Cool cookies completely before filling. 
5. To make filling, beat butter and peanut butter together, then mix in icing sugar until combined. Slowly add cream, starting with 2 tablespoons and increasing if necessary to get a smooth consistency. 
6. Make sandwiches by spreading the bottom of one cookie with about a tablespoon of filling, and pressing together with another cookie. 
7. Keep cookies refrigerated, or freeze and enjoy them frozen!

This article was originally published on the Stimuli Magazine blog.