Peanut Butter Fudge Puddles (Cookie Cups)

Peanut butter fudge puddles are delightful 2-bite peanut butter cookie cups baked in a mini muffin pan and filled with a rich chocolate cream—a pairing of complementary flavors and contrasting textures for chocolate-peanut butter lovers only! I got this recipe from a friend, and the whimsical name makes these sweet treats even more irresistible.

One reader, Karin, commented: “These turned out beautifully! There was no problem getting the cookie out of the tin. A gentle twist when they cooled and they popped right out. The filling was nice and creamy, and the mascarpone added an indulgent taste that I like to have with a Christmas cookie! ★★★★★“

When I think of the variety of flavors that simply must be included in my holiday cookie trays, the assortment always includes traditional favorites like sugar cookies, spiced gingerbread cookies and molasses cookies, and peppermint mocha cookies. But I also need to have a chocolate-peanut butter combo in there. Because… do I really need a reason?

Chocolate + peanut butter IS the reason.

While I love classic peanut butter blossoms, today’s cookies are a little different because we’re making our own filling instead of pressing in a store-bought chocolate candy. But I promise it’s easy to make! It’s a silky-smooth, oh-so-creamy chocolate filling, similar to chocolate ganache, that stays soft.

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Peanut Butter Fudge Puddles Recipe Snapshot

• Texture: A slightly crisp peanut butter cookie cup contrasts nicely with the soft, silky-smooth chocolate filling. A sprinkle of toffee bits on top adds a little crunch.
• Flavor: Chocolate. Peanut butter. Next question.
• Ease: Beginner bakers can definitely handle this recipe.
• Time: The dough needs to chill for 1 hour. Everything else moves pretty quickly.

Fudge Puddle Ingredients You Need & Why

• Butter: Butter adds flavor and structure. Make sure you have proper room-temperature butter, so it aerates and creams with the sugar. If you’re a beginner baker, I have a full tutorial on how to cream butter and sugar.
• Sugars: We use a combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar in this recipe. Both for sweetness, and brown sugar for extra moisture and flavor.
• Peanut Butter: The most important ingredient! For best results, use processed peanut butter like Jif or Skippy—the same I recommend for my peanut butter balls and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.
• Egg: One egg binds everything together and keeps the peanut butter cookie cups from crumbling apart in your hands.
• Vanilla Extract: For flavor.
• Flour: All-purpose flour forms the base of these peanut butter cookie cups. You don’t need a lot; did you know that nut butters act as a binder and can actually replace some or all flour in cookie recipes? See these flourless monster cookies! Using more flour will dry out the cookies, so stick with the recipe below.
• Baking Soda: Baking soda helps the dough expand in the oven.
• Salt: To balance all the flavors.

And for the chocolate filling, you need just 3 ingredients: chocolate, mascarpone cheese, and a little oil to keep it smooth.

These Step-by-Step Photos Will Help

To make the peanut butter cookie cups, combine the wet ingredients and then add the dry ingredients. This is an easy 1-bowl cookie dough. An electric mixer is key. Expect a very soft and creamy cookie dough:

Refrigerate the cookie dough for 1 hour. It will still be quite soft after this hour, but it will be easier to mold and shape. Scoop the chilled dough with a Tablespoon measuring spoon, and roll into balls. Place the cookie dough balls into a greased mini muffin pan. This is the mini muffin pan I use and love. If you don’t have more than 1 mini muffin pan, you can bake these in batches—just keep the 2nd batch of dough balls cold.

Use your thumb to press down in the center of the cookie dough ball and mold the dough up the sides of each cup. Like this:

Bake at 325°F (163°C). (Baking them at 350°F gave us hard, over-baked cookie cups.)

They puff up in the oven, so use a rounded spoon like a teaspoon to lightly press down the center of each cookie cup again when they come out of the oven. Let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then transfer them from the pan to a cooling rack to cool completely before filling. A butter knife may be needed to help you remove them from the pan.

Success Tip

Do not under-bake these cookie cups. If they’re extra soft, they’ll completely crumble when you try to remove them from the mini muffin pan.

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Fudge Puddle Filling

If you’ve ever made my recipe for chocolate ganache, you may remember that, to make ganache, we pour warm heavy cream over chopped chocolate to melt it, and then stir. For today’s filling, we’re sort of going in reverse. Melt the chocolate (with the oil) first, then fold the mascarpone into the melted chocolate.

Using a teaspoon, spoon the filling—as much as you can fit—into each cookie cup.

For extra texture and flair, sprinkle the tops with some crushed toffee bits. I use the Heath brand of toffee bits, found in the baking aisle near the chocolate chips. These are also fantastic sprinkled on top of chocolate chip cookie bark. You could also top these peanut butter fudge puddles with chopped peanuts, sprinkles, or flaky sea salt instead. Or don’t sprinkle them with anything at all, they’re perfect all on their own!

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This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page.

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