Chocolate and Peanut Butter Marble Cookies

This weekend I went up to see the boyfriend in Austin <3  He was having a company potluck dinner and we had a whole day of just cooking and baking for the occasion.  Of course I was more focused on the dessert portion :) and today's special was Chocolate and Peanut Butter Marble Cookies!!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temp
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large egg
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter

Recipe from King Arthur Flour

Directions:

(1) Preheat oven to 375˚F.  Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt) and set aside.

(2) In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, 1/2 cup peanut butter, and both sugars until fluffy.  Add the vanilla and egg, making sure to incorporate well.

(3) Mix in the dry ingredients until blended, and set aside the completed chocolate mixture.

(4) Make the peanut butter mixture by combining the powdered sugar and the 3/4 cup of peanut butter.  Beat well until the mixture comes together and is fluffy.

(5) Roll the peanut butter mixture into 1 inch balls.  The dough may be a little sticky but it should not prevent you from handling it.

(6) Using an equal amount of the chocolate mixture as the peanut butter mixture, create a flat round circle (similar to a wonton wrapper).

(7) Place the peanut butter ball inside the chocolate circle and wrap around while still allowing some of the peanut butter ball to peak out.  Lightly flatten the cookie and place on baking sheet.

(8) Bake cookies for about 7-9 minutes.

I will admit that this cookie was not very easy to work with and next time I will adjust the chocolate cookie mixture.  This dough turned out very dry and almost crumbly like a biscuit dough, and I found it very frustrating because originally I wanted to totally enclose the peanut butter inside the chocolate to resemble the classic peanut butter cup candy that many people love.  However, due to the dryness of the dough it would not form smoothly around the peanut butter but rather cracked as I tried to wrap the chocolate around the peanut butter, which created the marbling effect you see here.  Next time I make this I will definitely be making adjustments for the chocolate mixture.  Although the cookie itself got many rave reviews, I myself would not want to go through the frustration of this crumbly dough again; but then again because of all the fabulous comments on the cookie, I will have to attempt this again but I will aim for a more user-friendly consistency in the dough.