Zazu’s Nudder Budders (Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies)

Peanut butter cookies with peanut butter filling. Homemade and so much better than Nutter-Butters. And I adore those so that's really saying something! 

Last Monday I had a company spouses’ potluck lunch to which I had been kindly invited.  But first, there was my new ladies Bible study, which meets on Monday mornings, so I thought the best the lunch plan would be to bring something sweet that wouldn’t require reheating.  This was one of the first recipes I tabbed in Fried Chicken and Champagne because as a child, I adored Nutter Butter Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies.   A homemade version seemed like a great idea.  I halved the original recipe and still got a nice plateful of more than two dozen filled cookies. 

(If I had only realized that higher-level math would be involved in halving the recipe for posting here, I might have reconsidered.  While I could take the amount 1 1/4 cups of peanut butter and happily mix in half of 1 cup which equals 1/2 cup and then half of 1/4 and mix in 1/8 cup, it didn’t seem very professional to make you all do that too.  So I had to add fractions!   No comments – that is higher level math for me. : ) I will not make you do math if you want to make the original recipe so I will add a little note at the bottom with the original amounts.  To my fellow math phobes, you are welcome.  And I hope you have a 1/8 cup measure like I do.  Or a scale.)

Ingredients for the cookie dough

5/8 cup (1/2 +1/8 cup) or 155g peanut butter

1/4 cup or 55g butter

1/8 cup or 25g brown sugar

3/8 cup (1/4 + 1/8 cup) or 85g sugar

1 egg

2/3 cup or 80g flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Ingredients for the filling

1 1/2 cups or 375g peanut butter

2 cups or 250g powdered or confectioners sugar

3/4 cup or 175ml cream

Method for cookies

Cream together your butter, brown sugar and white sugar.   Add in the peanut butter and beat again.

Add in the egg and beat until thoroughly mixed.

Add in the flour, salt and baking soda and beat again.  

Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Using two pieces of parchment paper, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch or a little more than 1/2cm thickness.  My brown sugar had lumps that I couldn't seem to get rid of.  Your dough will probably not be speckled.  I told myself the specks add character. 

Remove the top piece of parchment and cut the dough with your cookie cutter, flouring it lightly first with each cut.  As you can see, I only had a glass.  Those cookies looked way too big for how rich they were going to be when filled so I cut them in half with a sharp knife.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 325°F or 165°C.

Pop the whole parchment (on a cookie sheet or tray or other flat surface) in the freezer for about 10 minutes.  This makes the cookies much easier to remove in one piece.

Transfer the cookies to another piece of parchment on a cookie tray.  Bake for 13-18 minutes or until golden.   (Mine took 13 minutes.)

Continue rolling and cutting and freezing and transferring the cookie dough to a parchment lined baking tray until all the cookies are baked.  Allow them to cool.

While they are baking, you can make the filling.

Method for filling

Cream together the powdered sugar and peanut butter until very smooth.

Add in the cream, while beating.  Set aside.

Give your helper the empty plastic peanut butter jar to clean out. 

Check out that long pink tongue. Very impressive. 

Once the cookies are cool, spread them out with one half up and one half down.  Using a spoon and knife, heap the filling on the upside and spread gently.  Add the downside cookie on to the top to complete the sandwich.  ( I tried to put a generous amount on each, but I still had quite a bit of filling left over.)

There were 27 filled cookies in all. 

 Enjoy with a cold glass of milk!

Afternote:  The original ingredient amounts

Cookies

1 1/4 cups or 310g peanut butter

1/2 cup or 110g butter

1/4 cup or 50g brown sugar

3/4 cup or 170g sugar

1 egg

1 1/3 cups or 160g flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Filling

3 cups or 750g peanut butter

4 cups powdered or 500g confectioners sugar

1 1/2 cups or 350ml cream