I have 3 words for you- peanut butter oreos. These were totally an impulse buy at the grocery store, but since peanut butter and chocolate is the best combination on earth, I knew they were going to be amazing. How did I just now discover these?

Remember these cupcakes I made around Christmas time? These use the same (vegan) chocolate cupcake recipe. In fact, the entire cupcake is vegan. Instead of Oreo’s, I used Newman O’s this time, which is a slightly healthier version of the cookie. Don’t get me wrong, this is by no means health food. Newman O’s still contain a lot of sugar, but it’s organic sugar instead of HFCS. Hey, I’ll take what I can get. They’re also egg and dairy free, so no animals were harmed in the making of these cupcakes.

The cupcake recipe is from one of my go to baking books, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World . I love this chocolate cupcake recipe. It’s so simple, and you don’t even need a mixer! Just whisk together the ingredients, and you have a perfect one bowl chocolate cupcake. If you don’t have non-dairy milk on hand and you’re not concerned about the cupcakes being vegan, just sub regular milk (I’ve made it with skim, 2%, and whole). This recipe works well with both natural and Dutch process cocoa powder.

Print Peanut Butter Oreo Cupcakes Yield: 12 Cupcakes Ingredients For the cupcakes:

1 cup soy milk (or any non-dairy milk)

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa (I used Hershey's Special Dark)

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

About 10 Peanut Butter Newman O's, chopped

For the frosting: 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated margerine (I used Earth Balance)

1/2 cup non-hydrogenated shortening (I used Spectrum Organics)

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar (I used Wholesome Sweeteners)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt (if the peanut butter is salted, leave this out)

6 Newman O's, made into crumbs in the food processor





Instructions For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350. Line a cupcakes tin with 12 paper liners. In a large bowl, whisk together the soymilk and vinegar. Set it aside for a couple of minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla to the “buttermilk.” Whisk until the mixture is foamy. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and mix until all the ingredients are combined. Stir in the cookie pieces. Divide the batter equally between the 12 cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool completely before frosting. For the frosting: Beat the shortening and margerine together on medium speed until fluffy. Add the peanut butter and beat until combined. Add the powdered sugar and beat for another 3 minutes. Start your mixer on low until the powdered sugar is just combined, otherwise you’ll be wearing it. Then increase the speed to medium. Add the vanilla extract and salt, and beat on medium high until combined. Stir in the cookie crumbs. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes cooled cupcakes and top with an oreo cookie. 3.1 http://cakemerchant.com/2013/03/26/peanut-butter-oreo-cupcakes/

Cupcake and frosting recipe adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World