Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies
My 21 year old son, Joshua, came home from college last week. One of the first questions asked was, “What have you baked?” A reasonable enough question in this household. Little did either us know, at the time, that Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies were next!
I had some Budge’s Brownies in the freezer, but Joshua was hoping for Gooey Brownie Cups. This being the easiest recipe on my blog, it was a simple enough request to fill.
Of course, when he finished that, it was only natural to hear soon after, “what’s next?” I decided a big batch of cookies was in order.
I have been baking a lot of fruit desserts lately, taking advantage of the wonderful summer fruits, but on this day I wanted peanut butter. I know that there are some who are diehard peanut butter without chocolate fans, but I was craving the combination.
I came up with a peanut butter cookie that has both peanut butter and chocolate chips in them. The outside of each cookie gets rolled in either turbinado sugar, for those who want the extra sweetness, or chopped up raw peanuts. There is a third option of not rolling the cookies in anything and these cookies are delicious, too.
In terms of the reactions from those eating the cookies, Joshua loved them so much that he really couldn’t understand why we had to share Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies with others, who also happened to love them. I took this as a good sign! Even after finishing a big meal, an hour later one of the bags of cookies was brought into the family room and I had the pleasure of watching Joshua pop the cookies into his mouth, as if dinner had never happened.
I view my time with Joshua quite selfishly. I got to spend time with my oldest baby boy, which is something that I treasure, and I had the opportunity to play with a new cookie. I can’t wait for Joshua to come back, so I can get busy figuring out “What’s next!”
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| Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies | | Print |
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
- 2 eggs
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup peanut butter chips
- ½ cup turbinado sugar or finely chopped peanuts or ¼ cup of each (optional)
- For the cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 325º. Line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Cream the butter, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping the bowl down as needed. Add the eggs and then vanilla. Mix well. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.
- Using a small ice cream scoop, drop the cookies onto parchment lined baking sheets. Roll the cookies to form a ball. Either roll the balls in turbinado sugar, finely chopped peanuts or bake them as is.
- Bake at 325º for 14 minutes, rotating the pans top to bottom and front to back. Cool on the pans or transfer to a cooling rack after 10 minutes.
- Betsy's tibits:
- The cookies do not spread. There will be 20-22 cookies per baking sheet.
- I use a small ice cream scoop that holds ½ tablespoon of dough. If your ice cream scoop is larger, bake the cookies longer. If it is smaller, bake the cookies for a shorter period of time.
- These freeze beautifully. I like to rewarm them in the microwave or oven to get that just baked freshness.
- If you do not have 3 baking sheets simply bake the first batch, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack after 10 minutes and allow the baking sheet to cool before baking the next batch.
