Homemade Nutter Butter Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies:
- ½ cup (113 g) salted butter, softened
- ½ cup (128 g) peanut butter (see note)
- ⅔ cup (141 g) granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup (141 g) lightly packed brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (142 g) unbleached all-purpose four
- 1 ½ cups (213 g) rice flour (see note)
Filling:
- ¾ cup (191 g) creamy peanut butter (see note)
- 1 ½ cups (171 g) powdered sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 4-6 tablespoons cream or milk
- 1/3-1/2 cup (33 to 50 g) graham cracker crumbs
Instructions
- In a large bowl (or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer), mix together the butter, peanut butter, granulated and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix for another 2-3 minutes until the batter is light and creamy.
- Stir in the soda, salt, flour and rice flour until well-combined. Chill the dough for 20-30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line one or two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Set aside.
- Portion the dough into balls about 1/2 ounce each (a couple tablespoons of dough per ball). Space them a couple inches apart on the prepared baking sheets and using a fork, make a criss-cross pattern in the top, flattening the balls to about 1/4-inch thick or less while doing so.
- Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and let them cool completely.
- For the filling, stir together the peanut butter, powdered sugar, and salt until smooth and well-combined. Gradually stir in the cream or milk until a soft, spreadable but sturdy texture is reached (you don't want it runny). Stir in the graham cracker crumbs.
- Spread a teaspoon or so of filling on the bottom side of half the cookies and top with the unfilled cookies (so bottom halves are sandwiching the filling).
- For mummy style: melt white almond bark until smooth and runny. Using a fork (a video demonstration of this method is here), drizzle the almond bark across the top of the cookies to mimic the lines of a mummy. Immediately press two mini chocolate chips into the soft almond bark for eyes. Let the cookies set for a few minutes until the almond bark hardens.
Notes
Peanut Butter: I used no-stir natural peanut butter for both the cookies and the filling; I'm guessing regular creamy peanut butter will work, too, and I think you could also experiment with chunky peanut butter.
Rice Flour: also, I know rice flour is a bit of a specialty ingredient but it definitely adds a wonderful light, crispiness to the cookies. Truly delightful. I ground some jasmine rice from my pantry through my wheat grinder and used that, but you should be able to find rice flour in most grocery stores with a good gluten-free or alternative flour section (I've seen it sometimes above the flour in the baking section). If worse comes to worse, I think the cookies would still be yummy with all flour (measure with a light hand so they aren't dry and dense!) and conversely, I bet all rice flour would be fabulous, too, and would help them convert more easily to be gluten-free.
Shape: finally, yes, you could definitely cut them out in the traditional peanut shape but I was too lazy and they tasted just as delicious as circles.