Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

       Valentine's Day is about celebrating the things you love. I love peanut butter. The other night, while leaving the campus after my final class of the day, I suddenly felt a huge zinger in my stomach--an intense craving for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. (I'm a girl, these things happen sometimes.) I've been trying to eat healthy lately, but cravings like these are hard to ignore. Convincing myself that it would be better for me to give in to a small "naughty" snack every now and again instead of experiencing occasional binge-trips (I'm a realist, I know it'd happen eventually) I made a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up some mini chocolate chips. When I got home, I whipped these suckers up . . . and I fell in love. They were slightly grainier than I would have preferred (which could have been due to the type of peanut butter I used) but they hit the spot. I only changed one thing about the recipe and that was the temperature of the oven. I like my cookies extra chewy so I lowered the temperature down to 350 degrees instead of 375 degrees. I also took them out before they looked completely done, then let them sit on the hot pan for a minute or two to let them set up. I actually  do this with most of my cookies because I like to have the center slightly doughy and the outside to have a small crunch. I also find that cookies last longer when I do this because it takes a lot longer for the cookie to go stale if nobody is around to eat them. That's not a problem with these cookies, though. They're too tasty to not get eaten right away! With that being said, I had to give most of these away so my "naughty little snack" wouldn't turn into my "scandalous binge night". 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe from About.com


Ingredients

•  1/2 cup butter, softened
•  1/2 cup peanut butter
•  1/2 cup granulated sugar
•  1/2 cup brown sugar (don't forget to pack it down firmly)
•  1 egg
• 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips (or more depending on preference)

Directions

--Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. (Or be like me and do 350 degrees instead for a chewier cookie.)

--In a stand mixture, combine butter, peanut butter, and sugars until creamy.

--Add the egg and mix until fully combined and fluffy.

--In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir it up a little bit.

--Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients a little bit at a time (you don't want flour to fly everywhere when the mixture is turning).

--Add the chocolate chips.

--With a cookie scoop, or just plain ol' teaspoons, drop the cookie dough onto non-stick baking sheets. If you don't have non-stick sheets, either lightly grease your sheet or cover it with parchment paper.

--Bake for 10-12 minutes. (Mine always took ten.)

--When you take them out of the oven, let the cookies rest for a minute or two, then transfer to a wire rack.

--Serve happy people.

--Enjoy!







Happy Baking!

--H