Fudge Puddles (Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Cups)

Fudge Puddles are soft and chewy, mini peanut butter tarts with a fudgy chocolate center. They’re the perfect addition to a holiday cookie tray at Christmas time (or any time, for that matter)!

Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge Puddles

Ok, I admit it. I ate like five fudge puddles already while making them. And did I mention, that was before they had chocolate fudge filling? They’re that good! 

Each fudge puddle is only about two bites of chocolate and peanut butter goodness. Just like with Chocolate Chip Cookies or Monster Cookies, it’s super hard to only eat one fudge puddle!

Last year my sisters and I got together and made all of our favorite cookies, then had a little cookie exchange! We each took some of all the different kinds of cookies we made (which includes Chocolate Marshmallow Surprise Cookies and fudge puddles of course) to put on holiday cookie trays throughout the season.

So, if you’re looking for an amazing treat this season I would like to suggest chocolate peanut butter cookie cups, or better known as Fudge Puddles. 

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List of supplies we used

• Stand Mixer – (aka Kitchenaid mixer) a hand mixer would work fine too!
  
• Measuring cups and spoons
  
• Spatulas – because you can never have too many
  of these!
• Small cookie scoop – or a regular spoon works just fine too
  
• Mini-muffin pan – we used this mini muffin tin from Pampered Chef
  
• Non-stick cooking spray – to grease the pan (or you can use the butter wrapper!)
  
• Rounded measuring spoon – or something like a small melon baller scoop to press down the center of the fudge puddles
  
• Wire racks – for cooling the cookies. (Don’t have a cooling rack? No problem! You can use a length of paper towel instead!)
  
• Small saucepan – we used this to make a make-shift double boiler!
  
• Heavy glass bowl – the other part of our make-shift double boiler
  
• Whisk – or fork to stir the chocolate mixture 
  
• Spoon – or piping bag to fill each “puddle” with fudge

Ingredients 

(If you’re wondering why the picture shows more ingredients than the recipe calls for, we made a double batch this time!)

Butter – salted butter (if you use unsalted butter, you’ll want to add a pinch of salt to the recipe!)

Sugar – granulated white sugar

Brown sugar – light or dark, it doesn’t matter

An egg

Peanut butter – creamy peanut butter is recommended. (I don’t really care for crunchy peanut butter, so if you used it in this recipe, let me know how it worked for you!)

Flour – all-purpose flour works just great

Baking soda – small but mighty, the baking soda is what helps the dough to rise in the oven.

Vanilla extract – like usual, this cookie recipe calls for the classic teaspoon vanilla, for flavor.

Chocolate Fudge

Chocolate chips – semi-sweet chocolate chips. Some people prefer to use half semi-sweet and half milk chocolate chips, so it’s up to you! Baking chocolate melts nicer than chocolate chips so that’s an option as well.

Sweetened condensed milk

⬇️ Find the full recipe on the handy little printable recipe card below! ⬇️

How to make Fudge Puddles 

First, mix up the peanut butter cookie dough. Cream butter and sugars together (an electric stand mixer works great for this!) then add the rest of the ingredients and give the dough a good stir. (Don’t forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula!)

The dough will be soft and somewhat sticky, so it needs to chill in the refrigerator for an hour or more before it can be shaped.

After the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease a mini muffin pan. Shape the dough into little balls, each one being about an inch in diameter. Place a dough ball in each compartment of a mini muffin tin and bake at 325 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Immediately after getting the baked peanut butter cookies out of the oven, use a rounded measuring spoon to gently press down the centers of the cookies, making them into little “cups”. Let the peanut butter cookies rest in the pan for about 5 minutes before transerring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

While the peanut butter “cups” are cooling, make the chocolate filling. I like to use a make-shift double boiler for this step: put a heavy glass dish on top of a small saucepan of boiling water on the stovetop. (Or use a real double boiler if you have one!) Place the chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in the heavy glass dish and stir until the chocolate chips have melted into a smooth, chocolate filling. (See notes)

Use a teaspoon (or a piping bag) to fill each little peanut butter cup with chocolate fudge filling.

All done! Let the fudge puddles cool again before storing.

Enjoy!💛

How do I store Fudge Puddles?

Store the fudge puddles in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, or in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, or in the freezer for a few months. 

If you want to stack the fudge puddles in a container, you might want to put a strip of wax paper between the layer of fudge puddles to keep them from sticking together!

Notes

You can also melt the chocolate fudge in the microwave if you wish. Melt just the chocolate chips in a microwave safe dish, stirring after every 30-45 seconds of microwaving. After the chocolate chips have melted, add the sweetened condensed milk and stir and microwave a little more until you have a smooth, melted chocolate fudge mixture.

Some folks like to add a sprinkle of chopped nuts on top of each fudge puddle, for added crunch and flavor. (I’m not a super big fan of nuts, so I skip that!)

Ten to twelve minutes of baking at 325 degrees seems to be the sweet spot! Underbaked fudge puddles fall apart and don’t hold their shape and overbaked fudge puddles are crispy instead of soft and chewy.

Even More Amazing Cookie Recipes

• Sand Tart Sugar Cookies (Traditional Mennonite Recipe)
  
• Chocolate Marshmallow Surprise Cookies 
  
• The Best Monster Cookies

Share this recipe!

Did you make Fudge Puddles?

We’d love to hear how it went for you; leave a comment below!

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’til next time, we love you and we’ll be praying for you,

-Julie