Muddy Buddy Cookies

I can say with confidence that I haven’t had puppy chow (AKA muddy buddies) since the early to mid 90s. To be honest, I didn’t like it all that much back then. I hated the name (who wants to eat something that conjures up images of dog food?) and how messy it was with powdered sugar getting everywhere.

But recently a friend introduced me to the blog cookiesandcups.com through Pinterest and a blog for Puppy Chow Cookies had me at once laughing and intrigued. The author, Shelly, made the mistake every food blogger makes at some point in her life: believes she just created culinary genius until referring to google and finding out many others had culinary genius first. This has happened to me numerous times. More so than I care to remember.

Despite the fact that I was never a huge fan of puppy chow, a peanut butter cookie covered in chocolate sounded like a good idea to me. Shelly’s pictures helped sway me. I needed to try the cookies immediately.

ingredients.

• 1/2 c. butter, room temperature
• 1 c. creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 1/2 c. light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 T. vanilla
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 1/4 c. flour
• 1 1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/3 c. creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 c. butter
• 2+ c. powdered sugar

directions.

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside or spray with cooking spray.
2. In bowl of stand mixer cream butter and peanut butter together until smooth. Add both sugars and beat for 2 minutes.
3. Add in egg, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Mix until combined. Turn mixer to low and add in flour.
4. Portion out dough by in tablespoon amounts. Roll into a ball and then flatten with the bottom of a glass to approximately 1/2-inch thick. Place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes until golden at the edges. Remove from oven and transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. When cookies have cooled completely, melt chocolate chips, butter and peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl on high at 30-second intervals until melted. If the chocolate mixture isn’t thin enough, add more butter. Place powdered sugar in bowl. Arrange an assembly line of cookies, chocolate and powdered sugar.
6. Dip each cookie in chocolate. Using a fork to remove the cookie, scrape off any excess chocolate. You just need a thin layer of chocolate. Alternatively, you can use the back of a spoon to smear a thin layer of chocolate on both sides of the cookie (don’t forget the sides!). 
7. Immediately dip the cookie into the powdered sugar and toss to coat completely. Let rest in the bowl for a little bit before placing back on cooling rack to rest until chocolate is set. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

I experimented heavily with the application of chocolate to the cookie. First off, I had to add an additional one-fourth cup of butter to the chocolate mixture to thin it out a bit (this additional one-fourth a cup is reflected in the ingredients above). The first two cookies I dropped into the chocolate just didn’t stick. The chocolate wanted to slide right off. That’s when I thinned it out by adding additional butter. Once I thinned out the butter, I had no problem coating the cookies. I tried dropping cookies directly into the chocolate, spreading the chocolate onto the cookies with the back of the spoon and only covering the top of the cookie in chocolate.

What I found was that it seemed to work best when spreading the chocolate on either side of the cookie using the back of a spoon. That way I could control how much chocolate was going on in the first place (not easy to do when you drop it right in).

I also found it worked best to have three bowls of powdered sugar going. I would let one of the chocolate and powdered sugar-covered cookies “rest” in the powdered sugar while coating the other two cookies. I found that if I tried to move a cookie from the powdered sugar immediately after coating in sugar, that the chocolate and powdered sugar got smudged from the fork upon removal. I wouldn’t have minded having more than three bowls of powdered sugar going at one time.

These cookies are kind of a pain in the @ss to make. But holy chocolate peanut butter goodness, I think they honestly might be the best cookie I’ve ever eaten. Well worth the trouble – especially if you’re going to make these gems only once or twice a year. Christmas is as good of a reason as any!

Recipe rating: 