There’s never enough peanut butter and chocolate combinations to appease me, so I modified a recipe I found on cooksillustrated.com for Big, Super Nutty Peanut Butter Cookies to create a satisfyingly warm and comforting sweet sensation. Crunchy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies have to be hidden from sight or they will disappear in the wee hours of the morning in the mouths of sleepwalkers of all ages. Who am I kidding? They know my hiding places.
My favorite way to use these is to create heart-shaped cookies for my grands on Valentine’s Day. Let’s start with the preparation process. This dough can be used for either regular PB cookies or it can be transformed into a special Valentine treat ( Directions and pictures will follow for those specifics.)
Beat butter with sugars until smooth.
Blend in eggs, peanut butter and vanilla.
Gradually add dry ingredients.
Finely chop peanuts in a food processor or by crushing hem inside a plastic bag. Then add them, along with chocolate chips, to the batter and combine until they are mixed evenly throughout.
Now this is what I’m talking about! Look at this incredible combination.
Traditional PB Cookies:
Using a medium cookie scoop, drop dough 2″ apart on rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Create criss-cross with a fork. Bake for about 14 minutes. Remove from pan and place on cooling rack to cool.
My Valentine’s Day Hearts: (pictures and directions for creating hearts)
Using a small(melon) scoop, drop 2 scoops, side by side. Press together, pinching bottom with your thumbs.
Criss-cross with a fork dipped in flour. Reshape if needed while pinching bottom to form the point and making indentation at top center.
Bake for 14 minutes.
Remove to cooling rack.
Crunchy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 c All Purpose flour If using White Lily brand flour, add an additional 5 tablespoons.
- 1/2 t baking soda
- 1/2 t baking powder
- 1/2 t Kosher salt
- 1 c butter, room temperature
- 1 c dark brown sugar
- 1 c granulated sugar
- 1 c peanut butter, extra crunchy(JIF)
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 t vanilla
- 1 c honey roasted peanuts
- 1 bag mini- chocolate chips(10 oz bag)
Instructions
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
- In mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars.
- Add in peanut butter, eggs and vanillla. Blend thoroughly.
- Gradually mix in dry ingredients.
- Stir crushed peanuts and chocolate chips until evenly distributed throughout the cookie dough.
- Using a medium scoop, drop dough 2" apart on rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Criss-cross top of cookie dough with a fork dipped in flour.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 14 minutes. Place on cooling rack to cool.
- To make hearts, drop 2 small scoops(melon ball) of dough side-by-side.. Press together to make a heart shape using index fingers and thumbs from both hands simultaneously. Criss-coss heart with floured fork. Bake as instructed above.
