Magic in the Middle

It seems like eons ago, but once, maybe a few years ago at this point, my twin sister made these delicious cookies. They weren't your typical run of the mill cookie. They were magic and housed a tasty surprise. I've been thinking about them for quite some time and finally got the gumption to get my rear in gear and make some.

I'll be honest, I actually made these cookies last night and didn't take any pictures. BUT, there was a good reason behind it. You see, I made The Biggest Mess you ever saw while trying to make the darn things. SO MUCH work was involved, but I was hell bent on having some as a Mother's Day treat to myself.

The cookies are called Magic Middles. They are a cocoa cookie with a peanut butter middle. Hence the mess. Thank the good Lord that the baby was napping; otherwise, it would have been a nightmare to bake, clean up, and keep her entertained.

I started off making the peanut butter filling first. I made certain to read though a bunch of reviews of the recipe to see if there were any suggested alterations and I learned a few tips. The first of which was to freeze the middles. So, I whipped up the peanut butter (all I had was extra chunky) and confectioner sugar and then formed them into 30 balls (my hands STILL smell like peanut butter). The balls were sealed into a container and then placed in the freezer while I made the outside portion of the cookie.

In the midst of trying to make the cocoa portion, I managed to get cocoa, sugar, flour, and baking soda EVERYWHERE. It was sad. I think I try SO HARD to NOT make a mess, that it backfires somehow. *sigh*  It was at this point that I decided to keep my camera out of the kitchen.

I pretty much followed the recipe, however I did add about a tablespoon of sour cream to make the cocoa mixture a bit more moist (it was some advice that reviewers had mentioned) so that it wouldn't break while encasing the peanut butter balls.

Luckily, I ended up with a lot of extra cocoa mixture (and therefore not enough peanut butter balls) and I was able to recreate some pictures for you all this morning when I whipped up yet another batch of peanut butter middles to use the rest of the extra cocoa mixture!

Here are the hand rolled peanut butter balls!

An example of how I rolled the balls up into the cocoa mixture:

All rolled up!  And then flattened out (with a sprinkle of sugar on top)!

Aaaaaannnnnnnnnnd...... the finished product!!

Clearly I took a bite out of it for you to see the delicious and magical peanut butter middle.

You can find the recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Magic-Peanut-Butter-Middles/Detail.aspx