Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies with Peanut Buttercream Filling
 
Ingredients
  • For the cookies
  • 130g flour
  • 88.5g cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 120g unsalted butter, softened
  • 134g granulated sugar
  • 55g firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 110g chocolate chips
  • 1 tsp instant espresso powder
  • For the filling
  • 256g Powdered sugar
  • 90g unsalted butter, softened
  • 113g Creamy peanut butter
  • (Possibly) 1-2tsp milk
Instructions
  1. Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt) and set aside.
  2. In the bowl of your electric mixer, cream together the butter and the sugars until fluffy.
  3. Beat in the egg, then the vanilla. Add the espresso and beat until combined.
  4. On a slow speed, add the flour mixture in three stages, each time until it has just combined. After the last addition, add in the chocolate chips.
  5. Place the dough in the fridge and allow to chill for at least an hour, for it to firm.
  6. Once you feel it has chilled for long enough, remove from the fridge. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan).
  7. Divide the dough into two equal sections. On a clean surface, form the dough into two equal rods. Rolling them out until they are around 12 inches in length. If they are shorter than this, don’t worry too much, you’ll just have larger cookies!
  8. Cut up the rods at intervals of about 1 inch.
  9. Place on greaseproof sheets in the center of the oven, around 1 inch apart.
  10. Bake for between 10-15 minutes. You want them to still be soft and chewy so it may be worth testing with one or two to begin with. I started baking them for around 13 and cut it down to 11 in the end. (As I said above, I pushed down some of them with the back of a spoon to make them spread better).
  11. Allow to cool partially before transferring to a wire rack.
  12. For the frosting. Starting on a slow speed, cream together the butter and the powdered sugar. Slowly increase the speed to medium and add the peanut butter. You may find that you need a small amount of milk to make it combine better.
  13. Spread on the top layer of a cookie, being fairly liberal with the amount, and then push down another cookie on top.
Recipe by The Bearded Bakery at http://www.thebeardedbakery.com/baking/cookies/chocolate-chip-cookies-with-peanut-buttercream-filling/