Return the tin to the oven and bake for another 4-6 minutes. You’re looking for the cookie edges to be a deep golden brown and the dough around the peanut butter cup to look set. The peanut butter cup will be deliciously soft and melty. Remove from the oven and let the cookie cups cool in the tin for at least 20-30 minutes. This is the hardest part! If you try to remove them too soon, they will fall apart. The cooling allows them to firm up enough to lift out with a butter knife, revealing a perfectly formed, gooey-centered masterpiece.
Pro Tips for Best Results
For the best texture, use room-temperature cookie dough. If it’s too cold, it’s hard to press and shape without overworking it. Let the roll sit out for 15-20 minutes before you start. I’ve tested with cold dough straight from the fridge, and it didn’t spread or bake as evenly, leaving thicker, doughier bottoms.
The timing of adding the peanut butter cup is everything. If you put it in at the beginning, it melts completely and can burn or seep to the bottom. If you wait until the very end, it doesn’t have time to melt and integrate. That midway bake is the sweet spot I discovered after a batch of burnt cups and a batch of barely-warm ones. Trust the two-step process.
Let them cool completely in the tin. I know it’s tempting, but these need time to set. I once tried to pop one out after 10 minutes and it was a delicious, but structurally unsound, mess. The 30-minute cool gives you the perfect, sturdy-yet-chewy vessel for that molten center.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Do not overfill the muffin cups. The dough will rise and spread as it bakes. You want each cup to be about two-thirds full with the pressed dough. I got greedy and overfilled them once, and they baked over the edges, merging into one giant, messy cookie slab that was impossible to separate.(See the next page below to continue…)