Chocolate Peanut Butter Lofthouse Cookie Stacks

If you all saw my post for Fluffernutter Pretzel Chocolate Chips Bars, you know that Tuesday was my middle son's fourth birthday. Chase is a hardheaded kid. He knows what he wants and he knows what he doesn't want. One thing he did NOT want was a birthday cake this year. He didn't want us to sing, he didn't want candles...

That was just not going to fly with me. I had to get creative and come up with a non cake, cake. THEN just a day or two before I saw this post from my friend Katrina for some Cake Mix Cookie Cakes... they are cookies stacked between frosting. Genius and adorable. The perfect little non cakes for my cake hating four year old.

I started brainstorming cookie recipes I had on hand that were soft and cake like. What I settled on was the idea of lofthouse cookies. For selfish reasons really... I have been wanting to make a batch for weeks. Last year right around this time I made these Lofthouse Style Sugar Cookies for Valentines Day. I have been craving them ever since.

With little effort I came up with these adorable cookie cake like stacks that I knew no kid could say no to. Guess what... Chase loved them. (If he hadn't I was going to question if the child is mine...)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Lofthouse Cookie Stacks

Ingredients:

 5 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups coco powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ cups plain Greek Yogurt

FOR THE FROSTING:
1/2 cup room temperature butter
1 cup peanut butter
4-5 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
(1-2 tbs of Cream if too thick)

Directions:

In a large bowl sift together flour, coco, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer combine butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs one at a time. Mix in vanilla and yogurt until smooth.

Leaving your mixer on medium/low slowly pour in flour mixture.

When the dough comes together and is just slightly sticky remove dough and wrap in plastic wrap shaping 2 circular disks.

Place dough in the refrigerator overnight.

When you are ready to roll dough out. Remove from fridge and allow to sit at room temperature for a 1/2 hour.

On a lightly floured surface roll dough out until it is about a 1/2 inch thick. Using a 2 1/2-3 inch cookie cutters cut circles out place them on parchment paper lined cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.

Bake at 425 for about 6-8 minutes.

Allow cookies to cool on cooling racks until room temperature.

Meanwhile prepare frosting.

In the bowl of your electric mixer using the whip attachment. Cream butter and peanut butter together until fluffy. Mix in vanilla extract, and slowly mix in one cup of powdered sugar at a time until you have reached your desired stiffness.  If frosting becomes to stiff or dry. Add one tablespoon of cream to thin it out.

Once cookies are cooled add frosting to a piping bag attached with a 1m tip or larger.

If your cookie tops are to rounded, using a serrated knife level them out by cutting a small layer off the top.

Pipe a large dollop of frosting on the top of one cookie. Top with a second, repeat with the frosting and top with a third cookie.

Finish the stacks off with a a swirl or dollop of frosting on top. Finish off with sprinkles. 

(Recipe yields about 8 3 tiered cookie stacks)