Peanut Butter and Jam Heart Cookies

Last night, as the snow continued to fall and temperatures dropped, I made cookies. I wanted to bring something in to work as a little "thank you" to all of the employees who aren't able to work from home and who braved yet another day of terrible driving. Since I got to work from home, I decided to use the time I would have spent commuting on baking cookies instead! These Peanut Butter and Jam Heart Cookies are Martha's latest Valentine's Day idea, and I thought a perfect way to show some love!

(Don't laugh - that is my attempt at shaping these cookies into a heart. Fine, you can laugh. Pat did, too.)

Let's get started. These cookies take a little longer than others because you need to form the cookies, chill them, partially bake them, fill them with jam, and then finish baking them. In the end its worth it, though! I made a double recipe so that there would be enough to go around at work.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

Beat butter and sugars with mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. I'm not going to lie, this got messy. Bits of sugar and butter went flying everywhere - I haven't quite mastered my electric mixer yet.

Beat in peanut butter.

Beat in eggs.

Reduce speed to low and beat in flour mixture until dough forms.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls (about 2 tbsp). Arrange on parchment lined baking sheets, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart. Press into 1 3/4 inch rounds.

 

Press hearts into centers using your fingertips (I used my pinkies).

Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and reshape hearts using fingertips (since these are much bigger I used my thumbs and pointer fingers for these). Fill indentation with 1/2 tsp jam to form a heart. 

Bake until cookies are firm, 6-7 minutes longer.

I made many trays!

Recipe
This is my doubled recipe which made 48 cookies. Original recipe here.

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 2 eggs
• 10 oz jar raspberry jam, stir well to loosen

Directions

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat butter and sugars with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in peanut butter, then eggs. Reduce speed to low, and beat in flour mixture until dough forms. If dough is sticky, refrigerate for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls (about 2 tbsp each). Arrange on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart. Press into 1 3/4-inch rounds. Press hearts into centers using your fingertips. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
3. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven, and reshape hearts using your fingertips or the handle of a wooden spoon. Fill indentation of each with a  1/2 tsp jam to form a heart. Bake until cookies are firm, 6 to 7 minutes more.
   
   
   
   

These cookies are very good - they taste like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches without the bread (I'm sure that's not surprising to you). A tall, cold glass of milk is amazing with these. Pat and I each sampled them last night, I packed one in his lunch today, and the rest came to work with me. I'm guessing there were 42 cookies in my huge Tupperware container, and they were gone in under 3 hours! I was stopped in the hallway by several people who thanked me and told me they were great. Some people left me notes on the whiteboard in the kitchen: 

My supervisor, who didn't plan on eating any because she's on a diet, grabbed one from the kitchen and immediately sent me the following email:

OMG!!! I just caved in & grabbed a cookie!!!!!!!!!! Very Yummy.

So I'd say these cookies were a hit! Make them for someone you love!