Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

This blog needs a cookie post.  In fact the first post probably should have been a cookie post.  Now granted I am just getting started, so there are so many things that I want to post about.  But if you have been reading all of my posts up until now, you probably don’t realize quite how obsessed I am with dessert!  Specifically with cookies, although I don’t really discriminate.  My favorite cookie recipes usually include chocolate or peanut butter.  Or better yet, both.  This recipe for chocolate peanut butter chip cookies is one of my absolute favorites.  It is my go-to when I am bringing cookies to a party because everyone loves them (and because I know I won’t mess up the recipe!)  I also like that you don’t need a mixer for it – I love my KitchenAid, but sometimes I just don’t feel like dealing with it.  Another plus is that you don’t need to leave the butter out at room temperature.  Sometimes, I just can’t wait that long to make cookie dough.  It is a rich, moist cookie with the most amazing chocolate flavor, studded with perfect peanut butter chips.  And if for some crazy reason you don’t like peanut butter chips (if you are allergic that is one thing, but if you just don’t like peanut butter I’m not sure we can be friends…), you can sub in any kind of chip you want!  Green mint chips are fun around Christmas time.

Chocolate + Butter = Delicious

Fold in the PB chips.  These things are so good, I could eat them by the handful.  Correction, I do eat them by the handful.

Then throw a batch in the oven and watch them turn into glorious cookies.

Finished product

Yes, I ate all three of these.  I can’t be trusted around cookies…

Adapted from The Food Network.

Ingredients
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 large eggs
1 large yolk
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
10 ounces Peanut Butter Chips

Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Remove pan from the heat, add the chocolate, then set aside until melted and then cooled slightly.  You can also do this in the microwave.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl.
Whisk the eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla together in a large bowl, then slowly whisk in the chocolate mixture.  Stir in the flour mixture to make a loose dough.  Don’t overwork the dough.  Fold in the chips.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours (overnight is fine too).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Form the dough into balls about 2 inches / 1.5 ounces each, and put on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, leaving a couple of inches between the cookies. (the dough is going to be very hard, you will have to roll the dough into balls using your hands)   Bake until the outside is crackly but the center is still moist, about 11 to 14 minutes.  Start checking the cookies at 10 minutes, you don’t want to overbake them!