It’s really funny – for years and years, ever since I was about 14, I’ve been making cookies on a regular basis. Sometimes once a week, sometimes twice, but as early as my freshman year in high school, I was known as “that girl who always had a gallon bag of cookies.”
Yet, if you go back in my blog archives, you’ll see very few cookie recipes. They tend to be what I make while I talk on the phone, or when I’m having a bad day, or when I need an escape – not what I like to highlight around here.
Well, that changes now. Cookies are magical and wonderful, and the world needs more of them – so to kick it off, let’s make a variation on a chocolate and peanut butter cookie that will knock your socks off.
Dark chocolate peanut butter cookies
2 cups flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa (I used Hershey’s special dark, but Ghiradelli will work just as well)
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cups (2.5 sticks of butter)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups peanut butter chips (I used Reese’s)
1) Preheat the oven to 350.
2) In a medium sized bowl, combine the baking soda, flour, and cocoa powder.
3) In a stand mixer, whip the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, and mix just enough to combine the eggs.
4) Mix in the dry ingredients.
5) Add peanut butter chips, and mix until completely integrated.
6) Roll out cookies, 16 to a baking sheet. Pro tip: Using a melon baller keeps your hands clean, and ensures that all of your cookies are evenly sized with similar bake times.
7) Cook for 8-9 minutes. Warning: they will still be puffy and look not fully cooked – in the first 5 minutes after you take them out of the oven, they will fall and look more like cookies you’d expect to see.
8) Cool at least enough to watch them flatten, and enjoy.