Recipe: Vegan peanut butter chocolate pillow cookies

Is it really Monday already?  Despite having taken the day of on Friday, I feel like I've been on the go since Thursday.  In between going out with friends, running in a 5 mile race, and nearly dying from what I gather was food poisoning, I made time to work on my vegan baking skills. 

Last week I mentioned that I was able to get my mitts on a copy of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar a smidge early.  There are so many fantastic sounding recipes, I can't wait to try out almost all of them, but being a lover of all things peanut butter and chocolate, I decided to try my hand at making peanut butter chocolate pillow cookies.  (which I realized after the fact were featured months ago on the Post Punk Kitchen blog)

I'll leave the wit and humor to Isa on the Post Punk Kitchen blog, but I will tell you a few things about these cookies:

1. In the book, they're in the "fancy" cookies chapter.  Why?  Because they're fairly difficult to make.  I equate this recipe to being similar to making pierogis or ravioli.  You need a lot of time and a lot of patience to roll out the chocolate dough and then carefully seal in the peanut buttery filling. (I was so angry at the cookies because of their level of difficulty, I didn't eat one until nearly 24 hours after I baked them.  No joke.)

2. These cookies look pretty boring (if not mis-shapen) when you take them out of the oven, or in my case, take them to a party.  But when you bite into them - WOW!  It's like eating the cookie equivalent of a peanut butter cup.  The outer chocolate cookie is firm but the center is soft and delicious. 

3. These cookies are a lot of work but are definitely a crowd pleaser.  I got multiple compliments on them - and plenty of "I can't believe these are vegan" statements.  I definitely plan on making them again when I want to impress someone or for a fancy cookie exchange. (The compliments helped me feel better about the disastrous mess in my kitchen and the hours spent making these cookies.)

Stay tuned for additional adventures in vegan baking.  I hope to try out at least one new recipe from the cookbook every week...later this week I plan on making magical coconut cookie bars.