Not sure what to bring to that party? Chocolate on the outside, peanut butter on the inside - these tasty cookies are always a yummy surprise! Watch the videos for step by step instructions from the MessyBaker.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour (ours is whole wheat)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup organic unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup organic raw sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup all natural creamy peanut butter
1 egg
1 TB milk (ours is organic skim milk)
2 tsp vanilla

Filling:
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 TB milk (If your peanut butter is all natural with no added oils,  use 2 TB milk)

Topping (optional): 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. In medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, brown sugar and 1/4 cup peanut butter until combined.
3. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well.
4. Gradually beat in the flour mixture.
5. Form the chocolate dough into 24 balls about 1-1/4 inches in diameter. Set aside.

Filling:
6. Stir 1/2 cup peanut butter, milk and confectioners’ sugar until smooth.
7. Shape mixture into 24 3/4-inch balls. 

Combine the dough and filling (shown in the video):

8. In the palm of your hand, flatten a chocolate dough ball. Place a peanut butter ball in the center. Shape the chocolate dough around the peanut butter filling, completely covering the filling.
9. Repeat with all the dough, placing balls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
10. Bake cookies for 9 minutes, or until surface slightly cracks.
11. For an extra pretty touch - lightly flatten each cookies with the bottom of a wet glass dipped in 2 tablespoons granulated sugar.
Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Every year EPCOT at the Walt Disney World Resort in Kissimmee, FL, hosts a 6-week long Food and Wine festival with yummy things to taste from around the world. Last year was our first time attending, and that was all it took for us to be hooked! We got a sneak peek last weekend as a family, and MessyMom and MessyDad will go back again with adult friends in a couple weeks.

Each year the festival has a new theme, and this year it is “Cities in Wonderland”, featuring art reminscent of Mary Blair, who created concept art for Disney’s Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. (If you’ve watched our videos, you may have caught that the MessyChef is Alice and the MessyBaker is Wendy, just like the main female characters from those 2 movies.) Mary Blair’s style also lives on in It’s a Small World, as well as on an enormous mosaic inside Disney’s Contemporary Resort.

We hoped the ”Cities in Wonderland” would bring lots of Alice themed things for OUR Alice to drool over, but it did not. Regardless, we did not attend for the theme we attended for 2 reasons:

1. The Food: Over 25 pavillions with a different culinary aspect from around the world are erected for the Food and Wine Festival and feature a la carte samplings with small price tags.

2. The Race for the Taste: MessyDad competed in the 10K event on Sunday Oct 12 and you can read about his run on his blog.

So… back to the food… Here’s what we tried this weekend, and we’ll try MUCH more in 2 weeks when we return with just the grown ups.

1. Santiago, Chile - Spicy Beef Empanada. This half-circle shaped dough stuffed with a spicy meat made MessyDad smile broadly. Basically it’s meat with Spanish spices and onions sauteed and then wrapped in a pie crust type of dough. The circular dough is folded in half, pinched shut, and fried (perhaps baked, but I think these were fried). They had these last year too and they are a hit!

2. The Mouse Catch - A selection of cheeses - Dorothea from Holland, Asiago Pressato from Italy and Manchego from Spain. MessyMom and the MessyChef shared the trio and savored every last crumb. The manchego was very mild, the asiago had just enough bite to be enjoyed with any crisp wine, and the dorothea was new to us both. We enjoyed them all!

3. Chilaquiles from Mexico City, Mexico - These were white corn tortillas layered with shredded chicken and queso fresco (mild, white cheese). They were prepared on an open grill and topped with salsa verde and crema (green salsa and sour cream). Yummm! MessyBaker is the pickiest eater and only likes 3 types of cheese, so she had boring nachos with only beef at the La Cantina De San Angel in Mexico.

4. France - instead of eating at a special Food and Wine Festival pavillion for dessert, we went to Boulangerie Patisserie, the pastry shop in France that is always at EPCOT. Cast Members (employees) of Disney World often agree this is some of the best dessert you can find on Disney property, and the line is usually very long. Because of all the other tasty treats available, we were able to hop into a line of only about 12, and it moved fairly quickly. Here we each had our own dessert - a chocolate eclair for Dad, mousse for Mom, chocolate ganache covered chocolate cake for MessyChef and a strawberry flavored “smoothie” or slushy drink for MessyBaker. They were all wonderful! The portion sizes were great, the servers were friendly, the cashier who makes the drinks let MessyBaker taste a bit of smoothie in advance, and MessyMom was able to practice her rusty college French. If you exit the patisserie and head LEFT there is a small shop that hides additional seating.  Shhhh.

5. Montreal, Canada - I did not try the salmon here (yet) but you could smell it cooking as you walked by and if I had not just eaten a cup of chocolate mousse I would have hopped in that line quite quickly!

If you love wine, take your time looking at all the different brands and specialties flown in from different countries, and ask questions. There are additional wines to taste in Futureworld at EPCOT in what used to be the Wonders of Life Pavillion and is not the Festival headquarters. I mention this because some wines featured are usually never seen in the U.S. without a special order - and others can be found at your neighborhood supermarket. I’d rather try a glass of something I may never experience again, but others want to be able to find that flavor close to home later.

We walked through the Pearville Fair outside the American Pavillion, for a slice of Americana and silly county fair flair. Here we learned to squeeze the neck of a pear gently and if it has a bit of give it is ripe and ready to eat! MessyChef and MessyBaker also became pears momentarily - and you can see the Pear Fairy at right. Melbourne had scenes from the famous Queen Victoria Market and wine seminars. The New York State Wine Adventure had some great sweet wines (vignoles and reisling) last year, but we didn’t go there last weekend. There was a line to get Mardi Gras beads in Louisiana that we skipped.

The Festival also has wine seminars, culinary demonstrations, book & bottle signings, live music on a main stage that is included in your admission, and the EPCOT shows that are always available - like British Invasion, a Beatles tribute band found in the United Kingdom pavillion, and the Japanese drumming ladies.

Some of the famous chefs we met included:

The Swedish Chef

Chef Minnie

and of course, Chef Mickey!

Our very own MessyBaker, Wendy, came in 3rd place in the first Spirited Woman Video Contest. Her video had to portray her as a “spirited woman” in 2 minutes or less. Wendy was the only kid to make it in the final round, and was picked in the lucky top 3 prize winners.

Go Wendy!