Sometimes you just need cookies. Maybe a small batch will do? If so, rev up the air fryer and try Air Fryer Peanut Butter Cups. No, these are not the kind with Reese's Cups smushed into the cookies. These cookies require no candies, and the cookies aren't horrendously sweet. Yes, they are sweet enough, but not so much as to overload you or your kids and cause a major sugar high. The cookies include a peanut butter cookie base (or middle, if you want to reverse them, you choose) and a chocolate cookie center. Both cookie portions bake up a little crunchy on the outside and soft and squishy on the inside (as long as you don't over bake them!). Plus, to ensure an adequate chocolate fix, the chocolate portion of the cookie dough includes cocoa powder and mini chocolate chips. You can mix up the dough in minutes, stash it in the refrigerator, and bake the cookies in the air fryer in about 10 minutes. I make about half a dozen at a time and put the remaining dough back in the refrigerator for another day. My cookie urge is thus satisfied, and I don't have too many cookies calling to me to eat them. And if we need (need being subjective, here) freshly baked cookies later in the week, I can make more in minutes.
Air Fryer Peanut Butter Cups -- Makes 12+
1 egg
1/4 cup of canola oil
2 tablespoons of milk
1/4 cup of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 cups of flour, divided
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 tablespoons of peanut butter
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips
In a medium-sized bowl or quart measure, combine the egg, oil, milk, brown and white sugars, salt, 1 1/4 cups of flour, and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Stir until all the ingredients are mixed. Divide the batter in half. To one half add the peanut butter and the remaining 1/4 cup of flour. Stir until everything is incorporated. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. To the remaining batter, add the cocoa powder and chocolate chips and stir until everything is incorporated. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the peanut butter and chocolate doughs for at least an hour. When you're ready for cookies, pinch off tablespoon-sized pieces of peanut butter dough. Roll the dough into balls and make an indentation in the dough balls with your thumb or the back of a spoon. Take portions of the chocolate dough that are a little smaller than a tablespoon and roll them into balls. Place a chocolate ball of dough into the indentations in the peanut butter portions of the dough. Cut pieces of parchment paper into squares to fit your air fryer (usually 6-7-inches, square, will work). Place a few cookies on each parchment square, spaced as far apart as possible. Place one parchment square at a time in the air fryer and bake the cookies for 7-10 minutes at 320 degrees. The cookies should be just barely beginning to brown and to set and will firm up on standing. If you bake the cookies longer, they'll be less squishy in the middle. Remove the cookies and repeat the process with the remaining dough-covered parchment squares until you have as many cookies as you'd like. Put any remaining dough, well wrapped in plastic wrap, back in refrigerator to use another day.
