Upgrade Store-Bought Cookie Dough With A Classic Flavor Duo

As much as we love baking from scratch, sometimes you need the sweet aroma and comforting taste of freshly baked cookies without the flour-coated counters and sink full of dishes. This is when premade cookie dough comes in clutch. Plus, you can make your favorite store-bought cookie dough anything but cookie cutter with fun mix-ins and additions. Enter peanut butter and jelly stuffed chocolate chip cookies. Yes, you read that right. Sometimes dreams do come true.

Making the best cookies of your life is actually incredibly simple — just put a small scoop of peanut butter and a touch of jelly in the middle of a flattened disc of store-bought dough and form it into a ball, making sure to cover the fillings. Or, if you're using break-and-bake cookies, sandwich the fillings between two flattened squares of dough. Bake as directed on the package, serve warm with a glass of milk, and you have perfect PB&J stuffed cookies in less than 30 minutes. If you have time, you can freeze the peanut butter in teaspoon-sized balls for about 15 minutes before baking, which helps the filling stay in place. But if you can't wait (sometimes it's a battle not to eat store-bought cookie dough raw) no worries –- your cookies might just be a little extra ooey-gooey!

Why stop at peanut butter, jelly, and chocolate chip cookies? You can fold these classic and comforting ingredients into almost any flavor of store-bought dough, from double chocolate to oatmeal raisin. Personally, I'm looking forward to whipping up some PB&J-stuffed snickerdoodles. Of course, you could also make your cookie dough from scratch, but using a consistent and convenient store-bought base allows for more innovation with the fillings. Using packaged dough isn't cheating — it's just being a smart cookie. 

Speaking of fillings, get creative and substitute a classic strawberry or grape jelly with apple butter, marmalade, apricot jam, or whatever sweet, fruity spreads your heart desires. Try peanut butter and cherry jam-stuffed double chocolate cookies, PB and apple butter-stuffed oatmeal raisin cookies, or even fill sugar cookies with almond butter and marmalade. No matter how the cookie crumbles, these sweet stuffed cookies are guaranteed to leave no crumbs.  

Static Media owns and operates both Tasting Table and The Takeout.