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Peanut Butter Black and Tan Cookies

February 28, 2017 by Joy the Baker 38 Comments

When you grow up in a family of very enthusiastic eaters, you come to realize that everyone has their own preferred flavor.

My flavor was strawberry.  I like strawberry just fine but I think the obsession stemmed back to an early Strawberry Shortcake fascination and just stuck. 

My dad’s flavor was vanilla… kept safe because no one wanted to fight him for boring vanilla.

My mom’s flavor was peanut butter and chocolate.  Two flavors really… but when you’re the mom you get to make up the rules.  

My sister’s flavor was… I dunno, maybe buttermilk biscuit… because she was always eating those in heaps.

Your preferred flavor is what appears on your birthday, when you bring home a good report card, or when you graduate from one thing or another.  It’s these little traditions that keep families in line, and gives order and reason to family celebrations. 

If all falls into this reasoning, these Peanut Butter Black and Tan Cookies are my mom’s and she can share but only if she wants to.  

They’re cakey peanut butter cookies (yes, just let it happen) are topped with a glossy dark chocolate and a creamy peanut butter frosting.  A classic Black and White Cookie gone tan with peanut butter. Max out on flavor because it is a very fine idea, especially with chocolate. 

Here’s what you’ll need: 

•  Softened butter, granulated sugar, and creamy peanut butter.  I used a peanut butter blended with palm oil, admittedly.  Not the super natural sort. Rather it’s that pleasingly blended / super spreadable peanut butter.  Guilty pleasure.  It adds just the right texture and fat to these cookies.

•  Eggs, vanilla, buttermilk to bind, flavor, and moisten our batter.

•  Flour, baking soda, and salt to work their cookie magic. 

Butter is creamed to fluffy along with creamy peanut butter and sugar.  

It’s key here that the butter be very well softened or it won’t properly incorporate into the peanut butter.  Essentially I’m saying, follow the rules… this one makes a difference. 

Eggs are beaten into the batter, one at a time until the mixture in beautifully fluffy and creamed. 

The dry ingredients are added to the wet, and buttermilk is streamed into the batter, bringing it all together. 

The batter will resemble a thick and scoopable cake batter.  I used a large cookie scoop to scoop about 1/4-cup of batter onto a parchment lined sheet.

Here’s some things to know:

•  Parchment paper will be your salvation when it comes to this recipe.  Better than foil, better than an unlined non-stick baking sheet… go for the parchment!

•  The cookies spread so they’ll need about 2-inches on all sides to do their thing. 

•  The bottoms of these cookies are actually the top so if you’re baking two sheets at a time, it’s a good idea to alternate them on the racks halfway through baking for even browning. 

While the cookies cool, we’ll make the peanut butter frosting and chocolate glaze.  

Here’s how we do.  

Bottoms up, frost half of the bottom with chocolate frosting and the other half with glossy chocolate glaze.  Allow the cookies to sit and rest.  The glazey tops will crust over a bit, making them easier to individually wrap in plastic. 

Cakey and sweet.  Chocolate and peanut butter. You can’t go wrong, ask my mom.  They’re as satisfying and delicious as you think. That’s for certain! 

Peanut Butter Black and Tan Cookies

makes 12 large cookies

For the Cookies:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup buttermilk

For the Chocolate Glaze:

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips of pieces

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon corn syrup

For the Peanut Butter Frosting:

1/3 cup smooth peanut butter

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

pinch of salt

splash of pure vanilla extract

3 tablespoons heavy cream (plus more if necessary to make the frosting spreadable)

To make the cookies, place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.  

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or using a large bowl and electric hand mixer, cream together butter, sugar, and peanut butter until well combined, thick, and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating into the batter for 1 minute after each egg addition.  Beat in the vanilla extract.

In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.  

Add the wet ingredients all at once to the butter mixture and beat on low speed.  Stream in the buttermilk and beat until all of the flour disappears into the batter.  Remove the bowl from the stand mixer (or set aside the beaters) and finish incorporating the dough with a spatula, making sure that everything is well combined.  

The batter will resemble a fluffy, thick cake batter.

Use a large cookie scoop to scoop batter mounds onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2-inches of space between each cookie.  Each cookie is a scant 1/4 cup.  Just less than 1/4 cup.  

Bake until cookies are golden around the edges and spread out, about 13 to 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to rest on the baking sheet for 10 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. 

To make the chocolate glaze, in a heatproof bowl combine chocolate, butter, and corn syrup.  Bring a medium size pan with two inches of water to a simmer. Place the heatproof bowl over the simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the simmering water. We’re creating a double boiler.  Stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is glossy. Set aside to cool just slightly before glazing the cookies.

To make the peanut butter glaze, in a medium bowl combine peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar, salt, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of cream.  Slowly begin to stir together until the powdered sugar begins to combine.  Add more cream as necessary to create a smooth and speadable frosting. 

To assemble the cookies, make sure the cookies are completely cool. Flip the cookies so the bottom side is facing up. We’ll frost the bottoms. Spread chocolate glaze over half of the cookie.  Spread peanut butter frosting over the other half.  Allow to rest so the glaze hardens a bit on the top for about 30 minutes.  Wrap individually in plastic wrap to store. 

 

 

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  1. Artine

    December 10, 2017 at 12:34 pm

    I don’t see a “print” icon, is there one? Would love to print just the recipe.

    Reply
    • joythebaker

      December 10, 2017 at 4:01 pm

      You’re right! I posted this recipe on a day when my site was a little wonky so it’s not in the usual format. I can fix that for you later or you can copy and paste the recipe into a word doc.

      Reply
  2. mia

    May 15, 2017 at 12:08 pm

    Sorry to be a downer but do you realize that the Black and Tans were an infamous British military force causing havoc during the Irish War of Independence?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_Tans#Conduct

    Reply
  3. Lena

    March 6, 2017 at 12:26 pm

    I am a huge fan of black and whites, so I think I am going to try the traditional icing recipe but for the white use powdered peanut butter instead. Stay tuned. Thanks for the great idea!

    Reply
  4. Supriya Kutty

    March 6, 2017 at 6:20 am

    OMG.This seems so delicious. my mouth has already started watering by seeing this images. Thank you so much for sharing this recipes.

    Reply
  5. foodzu

    March 6, 2017 at 4:01 am

    Nice Recipe

    Reply
  6. Maureen

    March 4, 2017 at 10:05 pm

    Am I the only person thinking of a PB and strawberry cookie, an ode to PB & J?

    Reply
  7. emmybradley

    March 4, 2017 at 9:52 pm

    Sorry for asking a lame question, I can’t seem to see the print option for this recipe. Am I just missing it?

    Reply
  8. Claire, UK

    March 4, 2017 at 4:11 am

    These look delicious! The name though… :-\
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_Tans
    I’m just recalling the huge backlash that a lot of food bloggers got over “Irish car bomb cupcakes” and thinking maybe you could pick a different word for pale brown? Black and beige cookies? Black and fawn cookies?
    Either way, I may have to find a way to get some of these baking in my oven in the very near future :-)

    Reply
    • Claire, UK

      March 4, 2017 at 4:13 am

      Oh, I see someone mentioned this already. Ignore me!

      Reply
  9. Meredith

    March 2, 2017 at 9:42 am

    Hey Joy! This is actually a type of cookie known as a half moon where I’m from (Utica, NY). Cakey cookie with ganache on one half and frosting on the other! Definitely glad to see you make a batch!

    Reply
  10. susie

    March 1, 2017 at 8:42 pm

    i realize this is diverging pretty wildly but part of the reason i love your blog so much is that it always inspires me to try something new … i’m dreaming of a version with a coffee flavored cookie base topped with half cardamom spiced glaze and half orangey glaze. these are my fav flavors to have in my morning coffee, and i have a weird feeling these flavors would play nice together in a cookie as well

    Reply
    • joythebaker

      March 2, 2017 at 11:51 am

      That sounds really good, Susie! Let me know how they turn out! I love that flavor combination as well!

      Reply
  11. Christian

    March 1, 2017 at 7:28 pm

    Hey Joy! These cookies look really delicious and I don’t think you should necessarily change the name but just in case you are ever in Ireland, be aware that the name ‘Black and Tan’ for anything is very controversial there because Black and Tans was a nickname for a brutal paramilitary group in the 1920s which was responsible for the murders of civilians. That’s why the drink called a Black and Tan is never called that in Ireland, and why there was controversy when Ben & Jerrys released a flavour with that name. I’m not sure how actually offended Irish people would be, but just to save you any potential awkwardness!

    Reply
    • joythebaker

      March 2, 2017 at 11:52 am

      Thanks for the note!

      Reply
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