Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I adapted this recipe from one of my favorite Pastry Chef’s and bloggers, David Lebovitz. The only adaptation I made was adding chocolate chips. Personally, peanut butter doesn’t excite me by itself, but when you add chocolate (or jam in PB & J’s case) into the equation, it’s a whole different story. My cookies also took a bit longer to cook, but that’s because my English oven is a bit dodgy. Enjoy!

Makes 30 cookies

• 1 1/4 cups (175 g) All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces/115 g) Butter, melted
• 1/2 cup (100 g) Granulated Sugar, plus more for coating the cookies
• 1/2 cup (120 g) Brown Sugar, packed
• 1 cup (260 g) Creamy Peanut Butter (not natural style)
• 1 Egg, room temperature
• 1 cup (8 ounces) Chocolate Chips

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, brown and white sugar and peanut butter until smooth (either mixer or wooden spoon will suffice). Beat in the egg. Add the flour mixture and mix until the dough barely comes together. Add the chocolate chips and mix until incorporated. Cover and refrigerate the dough for 2 hours or up to overnight. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature.

Position the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Pour some granulated sugar into a small bowl.

Pinch off pieces of dough and roll them into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls into the sugar and place them onto the baking sheet, 3 inches apart. Once the baking sheets are filled, using a fork, make a crosshatch pattern on each cookie.

Bake the cookies, rotating the sheets midway through the baking process. Bake until the cookies begin to brown around the edges, but the centers still look uncooked, approximately 9-10 minutes. It’s important to remove them from the oven before they look done so they will stay chewy once they are cooled. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet until firm enough to handle.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’m not necessarily one for the “ultimate”, “perfect” or “best” recipes because I think those adjectives are subjective for each person. However, there’s an exception to every rule and when America’s Test Kitchen puts “perfect” in their title, it’s a race to see how fast I can get into the kitchen to test the recipe out for myself. These cookies really are the epitome of perfection no matter how you slice it: thick, moist, gooey, buttery, chewy, and chocolatey with crispy edges. I guarantee you won’t have just one. A certain person has even banned me from baking these cookies in their presence because he ate eight in one night (these are huge, rich cookies and no it wasn’t David). This recipe is not adapted and is straight out of America’s Test Kitchen. Few, if any of their recipes ever require tweaking. Happy eating!

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 16 cookies

• 1 3/4 cup Flour (8 3/4 ounces)
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 14 tablespoons Butter, softened (1 3/4 sticks)
• 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
• 3/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar, packed (5 1/4 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1 Egg, large
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 1 1/4 cups Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large (18- by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.

Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips, giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons (or use #24 cookie scoop). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet. (Smaller baking sheets can be used, but will require 3 batches.)

Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies