Yummy Surprise Cookies

I made these cookies for a young women's lesson that I taught at church. The lesson was on the worth of souls and I attached the following story to a bag of these "surprise cookies":

Author Unknown
A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone! Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left. Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it. We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside each person.
There is a treasure in each and every one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth. May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world [and ourselves for that matter] as God would.

I thought this would be great to do for family home evening too. I love the lessons in Young Womens.

Here is the recipe on the cookies:


INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 cups butter-flavored shortening
1-1/2 cups peanut butter
2 cups sugar, divided
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
4 eggs
3-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 package (10 ounces) Milk Duds

DIRECTIONS
In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening, peanut butter, 1-1/2 cups sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Chill for at least 1 hour. Shape 4 teaspoons of dough around each Milk Dud so it is completely covered. Roll balls in remaining sugar. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until set. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks. Yield: about 8 dozen.
(I used mini snickers and rolos and just cut them in half because the gas station I went to didn't have milk duds but next time I would try milk duds...I bet they would make the cookie perfect)

The verdict on this recipe: Very yummy!!!! The kids really enjoyed helping me make these. Even Andrew was able to help out on this one. This could be one of my new favorite cookies to make. The only down side to it is that candy is not something I keep in my pantry so I'd have to plan in adance for making these but they are so worth it.