The Buckeye Sandwich

This version of tastiness was inspired by my wife and a cookie contest. The original recipe was just the filling and chocolate, but are really more candy than cookies, so it didn’t seem right to enter them as is into a cookie contest. As an experiment and per my wife’s suggestion, we added shortbread to the mix. I also added marshmallow to lighten it up a bit. Next time I make them I’ll post a picture.

What you’ll need.

• Mini Marshmallows
• semi sweet or dark chocolate. I’ve been using chocolate from a Trader Joe pound plus bar of dark chocolate. I think it takes about 8-10 oz of chocolate.
• Mini muffin tin
• Mini muffin wrappers
• two circular cookie cutters for the shortbread. I use two shot glasses, one roughly matches the size of the bottom of a mini muffin, the other matches the top.
• A couple of non tapered chopsticks
• saran wrap

For the shortbread

• 1 ¼ cups flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• ½ cup – 1 stick butter (softened)
• a little margarine (softened)

For the peanut butter mixture: (I have not matched up the size of this recipe with the amount of shortbread yet – you’ll probably have some left over when done)

• 1/3 of a small jar of peanut butter. I prefer all natural PB – I’ve been using Trader Joes lately since it’s a good deal.
• 1/3 of a stick of margarine (softened). I guess that’s 1/6 a cup.
• And about 1/3 of a box of powdered sugar (measuring is not really that important – have at least half a box on hand).

The shortbread:
combine the flour and sugar in a medium sized bowl
cut in the butter
chances are the mixture won’t be tacky enough to really stick together. I add a tablespoon of margarine at a time until it all sticks together nicely. You should be able to form it into a ball with your hands.
I split it in two.
Place half of it on some saran wrap (maybe 30”) on a flat surface for rolling. I then fold the saran wrap over so both the top and bottom are covered. Place a chopsticks to each side – about rolling pin width apart. Ease into it to try to prevent the edges of the dough from cracking. The chopsticks should act as a stopper – preventing you from making the shortbread too thin.

Use your two shot glasses (or other cutting devices) to cut individual circles from the shortbread. Try to maximize the space usage and have roughly the same number of big and little circles. Once cut, put the individual pieces on a cookie sheet. You can put them on pretty close together. The saran is great for this as you can slide your fingers under the saran and push up on the cut shortbread to help get them out easily.

Take the leftover shortbread scraps and smoosh them into the second half of dough and repeat the process. When done you can form the leftover shortbread scraps into nifty shapes if you want.

Cook the shortbread at 325 for 25-30 minutes. I check it starting about 20 minutes. I also use some of the scrap and intentionally make a slightly thinner piece of shortbread. When it starts turning brown, I know the rest are done.

When done take ’em out and let them cool. Eat some scraps.

The peanut butter filling:
I let the margarine and peanut butter get to room temperature. Dump it into a medium bowl and using a really tough spoon – blend it together. When it’s blended, add more sugar and stir. When that’s blended, add more sugar and stir until you can’t add any more sugar… Your arm should be tired.
Get a larger bowl and fill it with pretty warm water. Set your bowl in it and let the mixture warm up just a bit. maybe 20 minutes. Add more sugar and stir until you can’t add any more. Now your arm should be really tired.

Melt your chocolate: Use your favorite method. I just do it on the stove top. I put big chunks in a small pot on the vent burner from the oven while I’m cooking the shortbread. Stir it occasionally, but by the time the shortbread and peanut butter are ready the chocolate should be pretty well melted.
Put it together: Get out your muffin tins, load them with paper and put a smaller shortbread piece in the bottom of each one. Add a dollop of peanut butter mixture to each one. I use about a marble sized ball of peanut butter, then squish it a little bit by putting saran over it and pushing down with that small shot glass that you still have handy.
Now for each one I take a small marshmallow, split it in half and push the sticky sides down into the peanut butter. I marshmallow per cup.
Spoon a little melted chocolate over – you want to cover the marshmallow and have enough to ooze to the sides
Place the larger shortbread on top and push it down a little so that the chocolate oozes and the marshmallow goes a bit into the peanut butter. Be careful not to break it. The top of the shortbread should be about even with the top of the muffin tin.
Put em in the fridge so the chocolate firms up.

If you have leftover peanut butter and chocolate:
Get some more muffin papers.
Form slightly larger marbles with the peanut butter mixture, add a marshmallow and roll until you have a nice sphere. Dip and roll in the pot o’ chocolate, extract with a spoon and place in a muffin paper. Keep in the fridge. I just put them in Tupperware – they seem to last quite a while with no noticeable degradation of flavor.
If you have peanuts – you can also chop some up and roll the peanut butter in the little bits before dipping in chocolate.