Banana White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies with White Chocolate Strawberry Filling

I think these cookies could be served as a healthier baked treat for Valentine’s Day, or any old time! The texture of the cookie is nice and crispy and the filling is melty and sweet. Enjoy!

Banana White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies with White Chocolate Strawberry Filling

Based on this recipe from Buns in my Oven

Makes 18 small cookies

Ingredients:

for cookies:

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup Peanut Butter & Co. brand White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter
• 1/2 small or about 1/3 large ripe banana
• 1 egg or equivalent egg substitute (I used Egg Beaters)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 18 unwrapped Divine brand White Chocolate & Strawberry Heart candies

(You will also need a little extra flour for your hands to work with the dough.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 Fahrenheit. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix these ingredients with a spoon.

In a medium bowl, combine banana, White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter, egg, vanilla, and brown sugar. Beat with a hand mixer on low or medium until mixture has a relatively monotonous texture.

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and use your spoon to mix well. The dough will be a bit sticky and not very moist, almost as if there isn’t enough wet ingredients to balance out the dry stuff. Just have faith. 🙂

Place 18 slightly flattened balls of cookie dough on the prepared baking sheet. Here’s where you want to flour your hands – otherwise the next step is nearly impossible.

Now, place a heart candy in the center of a cookie dough clump. Use your hands to conglomerate the cookie dough around the candy so there is no candy showing, all the spaces are closed. The cookie will now be sort of a ball. Repeat this process with all the other cookies, until all have a candy in the center.

Bake in the preheated oven for about five minutes, then remove. Carefully use a spoon to gently press down on the tops of each of the cookie balls, so they’re a little less spherical and more flat. They will not be completely flat, just a little flat. It’s okay if a tiny bit of the white chocolate starts to spurt out of cracks in the cookie dough when you do this, just stop pressing when that starts to happen.

Bake for another five minutes or until cookies are a little crispy and seem done.

Enjoy warm!