Chocolate Peanut Butter Thumbprints
2 cups + 2 T all purpose flour
1/4 c cocoa powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
3/4 c butter
2/3 c brown sugar
3 ounces cream cheese
1 large egg
1 1/2 t vanilla
Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside. Cream the butter, sugar, and cream cheese together in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. This will give you a smooth, soft dough that holds it's shape. Using a #60 food scoop, drop balls of dough onto a cookie sheet about 2" apart. If you don't have the scoop, you will need to make 1.5" balls of dough. It helps to keep your hands damp so the dough doesn't stick to them. Once you have a full pan of cookie balls out, use a wet thumb to make a depression in each cookie. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. While the cookies are baking, make the filling.
Filling:
2/3 c peanut butter
2/3 c powdered sugar
4 T butter
Beat the three ingredients until thoroughly combined. Put the filling in a pastry bag with a large round decorator tip. Alternatively, you could use a plastic bag and cut the corner off. Remove from oven and redo the depressions by pressing a round metal teaspoon into the center of each cookie. Immediately, squeeze about a teaspoon of filling into the center of each cookie. Return the cookies to the oven and bake for an additional five minutes. Remove from pan and let cool.
Don't let them cool too much before eating because they are fantastic warm.
