These pretty and tasty Chocolate Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies are delightfully soft and buttery with a smooth and creamy chocolate ganache filling.
Christmas cookies come in all shapes, sizes, flavors, textures, colors, and styles. From more traditional spicy Ginger Molasses Cookies to exciting Andes Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies or Cranberry Pistachio Cookies. Buttery melt-in-your-mouth Eggnog Shortbread Cookies and Macadamia Nut Shortbread Cookies.
And, of course, thumbprint cookies! My Apricot Thumbprint Cookies are one of my most popular recipes. I make many, many batches of thumbprint cookies every Christmas! Another type of tasty and very festive cookie is Molasses Crinkle Cookies.
⭐️ Why You Need to Make This Recipe
- Texture - These peanut butter cookies are soft and tender and the rich chocolate ganache filling is so smooth and creamy.
- Flavor - Chocolate and peanut butter are always a winning combination as seen in my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake and Peanut Butter Brownies!
- Not only for Christmas - While thumbprint cookies are often made at Christmas, nothing about this recipe is super holiday-themed or flavored so I think these cookies would be great made anytime!
🧈 Ingredients
Here are the ingredients needed to make these peanut butter thumbprint cookies.
Ingredient Notes
- Butter - Salted or unsalted butter works here, see the recipe notes for instructions on substituting one for the other!
- Peanut Butter - This recipe was tested with creamy-style peanut butter so I am not sure how or if it would work with natural-style peanut butter.
- Cream - Be sure to use heavy or whipping cream that is at least 33% milk fat. Anything with less fat will result in a thinner ganache that will not set properly for these cookies.
See the recipe card for the full list of ingredients with measurements.
📃 Instructions
Step 1: Cream together the softened butter, peanut butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla.
Step 2: Continue creaming until fluffy and smooth.
Step 3: In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Step 4: Add the combined dry ingredients and mix at low speed just until incorporated. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Step 5: Roll the chilled cookie dough into balls, using about 1 ½ tablespoons of dough per cookie. Arrange on a prepared baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each cookie for spreading room.
Step 6: Bake in a preheated oven for 9-11 minutes or until beginning to crack. Remove from the oven and immediately use a round measuring spoon to create a round imprint or "thumbprint" in the middle of each cookie. Let cool fully while you make the chocolate ganache filling.
Step 7: Heat the cream until scalding and pour over the chocolate chips in a heat-safe bowl. Let sit for 2 minutes for the chocolate to melt in the hot cream before whisking briskly until fully smooth.
Step 8: Fill each imprint (thumbprint) in the cooled cookies with the chocolate ganache using a spoon or Ziplock bag with a tiny hole cut in the corner. Then, drizzle additional chocolate ganache over the top. Let chill until the ganache solidifies.
🥜 More Peanut Recipes
Looking for other recipes made with peanuts or peanut butter? Try these:
If you tried these Peanut Butter Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies or any other recipe on my website, please leave a ⭐️ star rating and write a little note telling me how it went in the comments below. Thank you!!
📖 Recipe
Chocolate Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies
Equipment
- baking sheet(s)
- parchment paper
- measuring cups & spoons
- mixing bowls
- electric handheld mixer
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- ½ cup salted butter * softened
- ½ cup peanut butter *
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup granulated white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For the Chocolate Ganache:
- ½ cup heavy cream (at least 33% MF)
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
For the Cookies:
- In a large bowl with an electric handheld mixer cream together the softened butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and continue mixing at high speed until fluffy.½ cup salted butter, ½ cup peanut butter, ½ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup granulated white sugar, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and add to the butter mixture. Mix at low speed just until combined.1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon salt
- Chill the dough for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Preheat the oven to 375℉ and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll it into balls (using about 1 ½ tablespoons of dough per cookie). Arrange the cookie dough balls on the prepared pans, leaving at least 2 inches of spreading room between each cookie.
- Bake the cookies one pan at a time in the preheated oven for 9-10 minutes or until beginning to crack on top. Remove the cookies from the oven and immediately use a round measuring spoon to press an indent into the hot cookies. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Bake the remaining cookies.
- While the cookies are cooling, heat the whipping cream in a small saucepan over low heat until just under boiling or in the microwave. Add the chocolate chips and let sit for 1 minute. Whisk the mixture briskly until the chocolate chips are completely melted and incorporated into a smooth ganache. Let cool slightly.½ cup heavy cream, 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- Add the cooled ganache to a piping bag or a sandwich bag with a tiny hole in the corner snipped off. Pipe about a teaspoon of ganache into each cookie's indent, then pipe a thin drizzle of ganache over top of each cookie. Place the cookies in the refrigerator for the ganache to set up. Take the cookies out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
- Add an additional ¼ teaspoon of salt to the cookie dough if using unsalted butter.
- This recipe was tested with creamy-style peanut butter so I am not sure how or if it would work with natural-style peanut butter.
Donna Andres
The cookies look very good Naomi. I think your goodies wrapped up would make the perfect 💝
Naomi
Thank you! Yes, that would be the perfect gift!