It has come to my attention that I don’t post anywhere near enough recipes for sweets. There are reasons for that. First, I’m not really a baker, and what little baking I do is usually bread-type things rather than dessert-type things. Second, I’m not much of a sweets eater. If the choice is between the most fabulous chocolate dessert known to mankind and a run of the mill medium-rare T-bone steak, I’ll take the steak every time.
The most common homemade dessert at my house–and by “common” I mean 4 or 5 times a year–is a spoonful of peanut butter with 6 or 8 semi-sweet chocolate chips on top. So, as you may imagine, the recipe below hit a nerve.
Peanut butter cookies are apparently a perennial favorite, and this is the easiest peanut butter cookie recipe I know. You won’t believe how quick they come together with ingredients you probably have on hand. They’ll keep for a week at room temperature, 2 weeks in the fridge, and the baked cookies freeze beautifully. (The unbaked dough does not freeze well, however, so definitely bake them first.)
These Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies travel well, and are perfect for lunchboxes. Kids love them, and the cookies are even better after a day or two. They are flourless, if you can believe it. All you need is peanut butter, brown sugar, eggs, and chocolate chips. Let’s talk about ingredients for a minute.
The creamy peanut butter can be replaced with almond butter, cashew butter, hazelnut butter, sunflower seed butter, or tahini*. I wouldn’t use Nutella, though. Nutella is pretty high in sugar already, and the result would be an extremely sweet cookie. These are plenty sweet already, but you can’t just reduce the sugar in the dough to offset that. In the absence of flour, you need the crystalline structure of the sugar to give structure to the dough.
So, can you use regular sugar instead of brown sugar? Well, you could, BUT the cookies will likely spread a lot more and may end up too crisp. Prepared as directed, these cookies will be a bit crisp on the edges and chewy in the middle.
The recipe calls for semi-sweet chocolate chips. You could also use dark chocolate chips, or milk chocolate chips instead. This is strictly your preference.
You’ll notice in the photos that I’ve made pretty big cookies. The cookies shown are about 4” in diameter. You can absolutely make smaller cookies than these. In fact, if you’re making them for small children, smaller cookies are probably best. Note that smaller cookies will cook more quickly, so watch them.
And either way, you’re definitely going to want a glass of milk.
*If you’re using a nut or seed butter that separates, chill the dough for at least an hour before forming them into cookies to firm them up.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1¾ cup brown sugar, tightly packed
- 2 large eggs
- 16 oz. jar creamy peanut butter
- 12 oz. bag chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and eggs, mixing well.
- Using a wooden spoon, mix in the peanut butter until thoroughly combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Cover two sheet pans with parchment. Using a cookie scoop or a spoon, place balls of dough a few inches apart. Using the bottom of a glass, press down on each cookie to flatten.
- Put both pans in the oven, one on the top rack and one on the bottom. Bake for 7 or 8 minutes and swap the pans--the bottom pan will now be on the top rack and vice versa. Bake another 7 or 8 minutes or until the edges are golden.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely on the pans.
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