"The best biscuits I've ever tasted"... Peanut butter chocolate pillows

Since embarking on the vegan project, I've been almost overwhelmed with the positive reaction from vegan colleagues, who have made a real effort to stimulate my development in this area (with something of a focus on the confectionary side of things... I can't imagine why!) A couple of weeks ago, I found two cookbooks on my desk - one full of vegan cookie recipes and one full of vegan cupcake recipes. Thanks very much Steve and Tom! 

Since I don't really make that many cookies, I thought that would be a good place to start, especially since the ingredients for this one are all store-cupboard essentials. It's the kind of recipe that you can just knock up if you fancy a snack.

And yes, they are delicious indeed. In fact, whilst I'm personally not given to the use of superlatives unless absolutely necessary, I have been informed by three of my loyal testers that these were "the best biscuits I've ever tasted". Pretty high praise, eh? Maybe you should give them a go! They can be a little bit sticky and stodgy to make - try and keep your hands as cool as possible by running them under the cold tap before you get going. The recipe below is my slightly amended version, with the official version given in brackets afterwards.

Peanut butter chocolate pillows
from Vegan Cookies invade your cookie jar
makes about 18-20 (book reckons 24)

Ingredients:
For the chocolate dough:
1/2 cup sunflower oil (canola oil)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup golden syrup (maple syrup)
3 tblsp soya milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup plus an extra tblsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

For the filling:
3/4 cup peanut butter - crunchy crunchy crunchy. None of that smooth nonsense!
2/3 cup icing sugar
2-3 tblsp soya milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a large bowl, mis the oil, sugar, maple syrup, milk and vanilla until smooth. then sift in the cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Mix to form a moist dough.

2. Make the peanut butter filling in another bowl, by beating together all of the ingredients to make a moist but firm dough. The moisture content of different peanut butters varies, so if your mixture is too dry/crumbly, then add a little bit more mik, and if it's too wet, knead in a bit more icing sugar.

The official version

3. Preheat oven to about 170 degress celsius.

4. To shape the cookies, make about 20 little balls of equal size from the peanut butter dough.

5. for each cookie, take a decent dessertspoon of chocolate dough, roll into a rough ball then flatten into a disc. Pop a peanut ball in the centre, then fold the sides of the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter centre. Plop onto a lined baking sheet (or a silicon baking sheet), with the 'join' at the bottom.

6. Set out the cookies about 3-4cm apart on your baking sheets (you will probably need two). Bake for abour 10 minutes. Let them stand for abour 5 minutes before putting onto cooling racks.

Yeah, baby! Big crunchy chunks of peanut in the filling. Om nom nom nom!