Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
I can't tell you why exactly (not because I'm being coy, but just because I am clueless myself), but I have been craving peanut butter like crazy lately. Do I need more nuttiness in my life? Whatever the reason, it's a bit of a problem. Peanut butter is one of the things I don't usually keep in the house because when it's there I will find any opportunity to swing by fridge, pry off the lid, and drag a spoon through the creamy stuff to lick like a lollipop.
The funny thing is, peanut butter is not even something I'm wild about. My current state of uncontrollable love for it is just a freak occurrence that happens every once in a while where I inexplicably flip for the stuff. It's like the rare night when, a few times a year, I cannot sleep and instead pretend that I am a terribly deep poetess insomniac, pacing the wooden floors in a long nightgown and thinking grand thoughts.
In any event, you can only eat so many spoonfuls of peanut butter before you want to do something more substantive with the stuff. Enter these cookies. I'd been eyeing them for a while over at Deb's place, and when I found myself in happy possession of a quiet, lazy Sunday afternoon, I knew just what to do.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen
adapted from Smitten Kitchen's adaptation of The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook (it's like the geneaology of a cookie!)
I learned a really important life lesson in the course of this recipe: brown sugar as hard as a murder weapon is not beyond repair. If you microwave about a cup at a time for 20-30 seconds, it becomes soft and you can break apart the granules with your fingers. Then store in a ziploc bag in the freezer, and you are officially a domestic goddess not to be messed with.
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup natural creamy peanut butter at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tablespoon milk
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, then set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and the peanut butter together until fluffy. Next, plop in both sugars and beat until smooth. Crack in the egg and mix well. Stir in the milk. Now fetch the dry ingredients and mix in completely with the peanut butter mixture. Stir in the peanut butter chips.
Scoop up rounded teaspoons and roll between your palms into balls before placing on an ungreased cookie sheet. Gently press each cookie with the back of of a fork before popping in the oven to bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool slightly, then eat.
Comments
Hooray! Well, if you need a fix, these are a most unsubtle one at that. Love the poetess insomniac image; so much better than my variety, in the dark living room with the blueish glow from my MacBook on my face.
Posted by: deb | April 4, 2008 10:33 AM
Oh, yummy! I just got through eating peanut butter on toasted sunflower seed bread. I love peanut butter too. There is a peanut pork recipe in Marian Burrows' book Keep It Simple that we sometimes make. "Pork Sate" is fairly easy to make. Let me know if you want the recipe, I'll be happy to email it to you.
Posted by: Erin | April 4, 2008 11:17 AM
Deb, Yeah, they are none too subtle. But then again, is peanut butter? :)
Erin, Oooh, I am going to go look up Keep it Simple right now -- that sounds like my kind of book!
Posted by: Sarah | April 4, 2008 11:22 AM
Your revelation about how to recover rock-hard brown sugar may just change my life. Thank you!
Posted by: Elizabeth | April 4, 2008 11:26 AM
Those are gorgeous! I think I will try to make a batch this weekend.
PS - I always adore your food posts. Do more, do more! ;)
Posted by: Ali | April 4, 2008 12:13 PM
Elizabeth, I hear you! When I would find the rock hard brown sugar I would always get so pissed off and buy another. Any tip that improves my mental serenity is worth its weight it gold! :)
Ali, So glad you like the food posts -- I'll keep em coming.
Posted by: Sarah | April 4, 2008 12:49 PM
Mmmm, those look tasty.
That solution for hard brown sugar is a great one if you need it soft right away. To prevent the problem in the first place, a slice of bread in the bag with the sugar keeps it nice and soft.
Posted by: Jean | April 4, 2008 1:10 PM
Gorgeous!
Posted by: EB | April 4, 2008 5:07 PM
Full compliments to you Sarah for the amazing website. It's just what I need when stuck inside on a rainy afternoon in New Zealand. Can't wait to try these cookies out! Keep up the great work.
Posted by: Nicola | April 5, 2008 1:11 AM
wonderful looking/sounding and i bet smelling/tasting recipe! i love your thought of needing more nuttiness in your life. you can never have too much of that (i hope).
what a nice post to read first thing in the morning!
Posted by: renee | April 5, 2008 8:54 AM
these look amazing! I've been wanting to bake cookies for some time but have not 1. had the time and 2. been properly inspired. This recipe might do the trick!
Posted by: Elisha Lynn | April 5, 2008 9:26 AM
Sarah,
It is absolutely serendipity that I found this post. I really just spooned the peanut butter out of the jar and ate it. I'll consider making this with my nephew next weekend.
Posted by: Bethany | April 5, 2008 6:43 PM
I just tried them and I'm not the best baker in the world... But my boyfriend assures me they're the best (he's very nice...) and says thanks!
Posted by: Jessica | April 6, 2008 3:29 PM
I completely understand your rollercoaster relationship with peanut butter -- one day I'll suddenly find myself eating it in any possible combination or by itself. My favorite is with honey and apples.
PS Great recipe -- love the presentation in the paper muffin tin liners!
Posted by: Cordelia | April 6, 2008 7:41 PM
sarah, i seriously want you as a neighbor!
Posted by: ann | April 7, 2008 9:53 PM
You had me at the headline.
Posted by: Valerie | April 8, 2008 9:44 AM
Jessica, So glad your boyfriend liked them. And kickass web design, btw.
Cordelia, Peanut butter, honey and apples are all so good together! Growing up my favorite afternoons were peanut butter and honey sandwiches eaten while watching I Dream of Jeannie.
Ann, We could throw potlucks! I am so onboard.
Posted by: Sarah | April 8, 2008 10:25 AM
Oh these look so yummy...now I may have to try this recipe. I love yoru blog.
Posted by: ReminisceHeirlooms | April 9, 2008 1:29 PM
Just made 'em--love!!!!
Posted by: rebecca b | April 15, 2008 1:06 PM
I love love love peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. It's so strange you seem to read my mind with my cravings- we must be soul sisters or something. Know what's better than peanut butter chocolate chip cookies though? Peanut butter chocolate chip OATMEAL cookies.
Posted by: Sara Rose | April 20, 2008 1:09 AM
Your friendly neighborhood Bahn-de purveyor here! I spent my overcast Sunday making these at my boyfriend's house (he has a kitchen aid mixer, what a man). DIdn't quite get it together in time to make up a plate for my fellow Sidecar folk, but I will now have to determine a handful of truly worthy recipients.
Always looking for new Park Slope dinner-party buddies. I'd gladly show up, homemade pie in hand, to one of your Sunday-night-blues-killing fetes. Keep on keepin on!
Posted by: Victoria | April 28, 2008 10:07 AM
Okay, you do not need to twist my arm on the homemade pie front. Let's do it! And that's a keeper of a guy you've got on your hands, I think. :)
Posted by: Sarah | April 28, 2008 10:52 AM