This recipe for Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cup Cookies is based on one that many of us grew up enjoying. It is a peanut butter cookie baked in a mini muffin pan, with a Reeses Peanut Butter cup pressed in the middle.
These cookies have been around for a while, and are quite popular as well. Plus, they are super simple to make, so if you’re still looking for a special cookie to add to your holiday baking, these can be done fairly quickly. The combination of the slightly salty peanut butter with chocolate is perfect!
Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
his recipe for Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cup Cookies is based on one that many of us grew up enjoying. It is a peanut butter cookie baked in a mini muffin pan, with a Reeses Peanut Butter cup pressed in the middle.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup brown rice flour
- 1/3 cup potato starch
- 1/4 cup tapioca starch
- 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspon baking soda
- 1/2 cup softened butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (commercially prepared peanut butter, like Kraft, works best)
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 48 miniature Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (not minis)
- 2 tablespoons decorating sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Unwrap all the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and place them in the freezer until ready to use.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the brown rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, sugars, and peanut butter until smooth and fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and milk. With the mixer running on low, slowly add in the dry ingredients. Mix until evenly blended.
- Roll dough into 48 little balls (about 2 teaspoons per cookie) and place in a mini muffin tin. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press the frozen Reese's Peanut Butter cup into the middle of the cookie. Return to oven and bake for an additional 2 minutes.
- Remove baking pan from the oven and sprinkle the top of the chocolate with Christmas sprinkles (optional). Let the cookies remain in the pan for 3-5 minutes* before carefully lifting them out of the pan with a sharp knife. Allow cookies to cool completely before storing in air-tight containers.
Notes
Do NOT let the cookies cool in the pan for longer than 5 minutes or they will begin to stick to the pan and not come out easily. Please learn from my mistakes. 😉
Cindy @Hun... What's for Dinner? says
I love these Jeanine! Think I’ll make some with the kids when we make cookies this week. Thanks!!!
Jeanine says
My pleasure! 🙂 Easy enough to do, huh? Have a great time baking with the kids! 🙂
Alyson says
Just a quick clarification question…
The temp in the recipe says “3575” degrees. Is it 350 or 375°F?
These look awesome. I used to make them with the regular ingredients and havent had one of them since going GF, thank you!! Can’t wait to try!
Jeanine says
Oops, typo! Thanks! 375 degrees!
Kenda says
I made these and substituted a gluten-free flour mix I had on hand because I didn’t have all of the flours in your recipe. The cookies turned out perfectly.
Leah Ferrebee says
I made these for Christmas an they were a huge hit!! May be one of my favorite GF recipes so far. Nobody knew they we GF and I didn’t tell until they were all finished. 🙂
Jeanine says
That’s the way gluten-free should be, I think. 🙂 And I’ve found it helpful to not tell people until after either, sometimes people have an idea in there head when they hear “gluten-free” and immediately they say “oh, i can tell”, when really, they can’t. 🙂
Sherrill says
I made these today completely following the recipe, and I could not for the life of me get these out of the pan. I waited the suggested 3-5 minutes to take them out, and not longer than 5, so not sure what I did wrong. As soon as I stuck the knife in the side the “top” ring of cookie separated from the rest, without even trying to lift them up yet! They do taste great, and I would like to try and make them again. Out of the 48, think I only have around 6 that are actually presentable. I tried spraying one pan of 12 with a non-cook spray after the first 24 failed, but those turned out even worse then the others. Any tips for getting them out in one piece?
Megan says
Sherrill, I had the same “top ring” problem you did the first time I made this recipe. I decided to check the original recipe from Reese’s and have had success with a few tweaks: use an ungreased, non-stick mini muffin pan; bake for 10-12 minutes until puffed and lightly browned; remove from oven and immediately press peanut butter cup into center; do NOT return to oven but instead let cool in pan for 5 minutes; remove cookies from pan and cool on wire rack. I hope this helps…I have a batch in the oven right now and so far so good :-).
Jeanine Friesen says
Sorry to hear that, Sherrill, Megan shared some great tips. I did have to be careful with them, but was able to get them out. Another option is to bake them in those cute little cupcake liners, you can get them in holiday colours or foils as well. then you wouldn’t have to worry about getting the timing right.
Sherrill says
I did try to do some with cupcake liners as well. All of those went into the garbage. Just didn’t work for me! Try to get off the liners afterwards was impossible!.
I’ll try it again at some point with some of those tips and hope they turn out better. The ones that I made are not pretty, but they sure did taste good. 🙂