Peanut butter fudge puddles are delightful 2-bite peanut butter cookie cups baked in a mini muffin pan and filled with a rich chocolate cream—a pairing of complementary flavors and contrasting textures for chocolate-peanut butter lovers only! I got this recipe from a friend, and the whimsical name makes these sweet treats even more irresistible.
When I think of the variety of flavors that simply must be included in my holiday cookie trays, the assortment always includes traditional favorites like sugar cookies, spiced gingerbread cookies and molasses cookies, and peppermint mocha cookies. But I also need to have a chocolate-peanut butter combo in there. Because… do I really need a reason?
Chocolate + peanut butter IS the reason.
While I love classic peanut butter blossoms, today’s cookies are a little different because we’re making our own filling instead of pressing in a store-bought chocolate candy. But I promise it’s easy to make! It’s a silky-smooth, oh-so-creamy chocolate filling, similar to chocolate ganache, that stays soft.
And for the chocolate filling, you need just 3 ingredients: chocolate, mascarpone cheese, and a little oil to keep it smooth.
To make the peanut butter cookie cups, combine the wet ingredients and then add the dry ingredients. This is an easy 1-bowl cookie dough. An electric mixer is key. Expect a very soft and creamy cookie dough:
Refrigerate the cookie dough for 1 hour. It will still be quite soft after this hour, but it will be easier to mold and shape. Scoop the chilled dough with a Tablespoon measuring spoon, and roll into balls. Place the cookie dough balls into a greased mini muffin pan. This is the mini muffin pan I use and love. If you don’t have more than 1 mini muffin pan, you can bake these in batches—just keep the 2nd batch of dough balls cold.
Use your thumb to press down in the center of the cookie dough ball and mold the dough up the sides of each cup. Like this:
Bake at 325°F (163°C). (Baking them at 350°F gave us hard, over-baked cookie cups.)
They puff up in the oven, so use a rounded spoon like a teaspoon to lightly press down the center of each cookie cup again when they come out of the oven. Let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then transfer them from the pan to a cooling rack to cool completely before filling. A butter knife may be needed to help you remove them from the pan.
Do not under-bake these cookie cups. If they’re extra soft, they’ll completely crumble when you try to remove them from the mini muffin pan.
If you’ve ever made my recipe for chocolate ganache, you may remember that, to make ganache, we pour warm heavy cream over chopped chocolate to melt it, and then stir. For today’s filling, we’re sort of going in reverse. Melt the chocolate (with the oil) first, then fold the mascarpone into the melted chocolate.
Using a teaspoon, spoon the filling—as much as you can fit—into each cookie cup.
For extra texture and flair, sprinkle the tops with some crushed toffee bits. I use the Heath brand of toffee bits, found in the baking aisle near the chocolate chips. These are also fantastic sprinkled on top of chocolate chip cookie bark. You could also top these peanut butter fudge puddles with chopped peanuts, sprinkles, or flaky sea salt instead. Or don’t sprinkle them with anything at all, they’re perfect all on their own!
You don’t need rainboots to enjoy this delicious muddy puddle experience. It’s raining chocolate—hallelujah! 😉
These delightful 2-bite peanut butter cookie cups are known as peanut butter fudge puddles. They're baked in a mini muffin pan, then filled with a rich chocolate cream. The secret ingredient is mascarpone cheese, which keeps the fudge-like chocolate filling super soft and creamy. Note that these bake at 325°F (163°C) and not 350°F.
