My husband, Richard, loves peanut butter. While he often slathers it on bread, rolls, crackers, and celery, I like to eat it by the spoonful right out of the jar. I can’t help myself. Peanut butter by itself is such a simple pleasure – sweet, salty, creamy. The perfect between meal pick-me-up.
I found a great peanut butter sheet cake recipe that I’ve made several times, and we love it! But Richard offered a not so subtle hint on my grocery list: COOKIES. So I figured a cake was out.
I’m not a real big fan of store bought cookies, so his hint went immediately off the list. They do in a pinch, but so unlike the real thing. And I don’t buy those extra large cookies from box stores either, because I think they are way overpriced.
As I was checking the pantry to prepare for my shopping trip, I discovered a bag of peanut butter chips. You know, like chocolate chips, but made of peanut butter. I forgot I had them. The recipe on the bag makes chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips, but I wanted an all peanut butter cookie. So that, I decided, was going to be the ticket to satisfy my sweetheart’s sweet tooth – peanut butter chip cookies.
Like most drop cookie recipes, this one is basic and so easy. I used a tablespoon cookie scoop to form them, and they didn’t spread as much as I would have expected. The edges are brown and crispy, and the centers are slightly domed, soft and sweet. Very, very yummy!! Happily, Richard thought so, too.
This recipe makes a smaller batch that normal, about 30 cookies, but I used the whole bag of peanut butter chips, roughly 1 2/3 cups. Feel free to substitute semi-sweet chocolate chips for some of the peanut butter ones. Mini chocolate chips would be fun and tasty, too.
- ½ cup (one stick) butter, softened
- ½ cup peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 14 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1⅔ cups peanut butter chips, normally one bag
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a stand mixer, cream together the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar, until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla, and mix until fully incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture, until fully incorporated.
- On slow speed or the stir setting on the mixer, add the peanut butter chips. Once the chips are evenly distributed, only 30 seconds or so, remove the bowl. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, mix the dough to make sure all the chips are evenly distributed.
- Drop the cookie dough with a one tablespoon cookie scoop or by tablespoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges and tops of the cookies are lightly browned.
