Recipe: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

It’s no secret I have a sweet tooth and in my recent work misery the cravings have been intense. Lately I haven’t been buying many sweets during my weekly grocery trips so I had no chocolate chips, baking chocolate, M&Ms, or anything else that could reasonably pass as an add in for Chocolate Chip Cookies. After a very VERY long time staring in my pantry I decided to go with Peanut Butter Cookies.

If you know me well this will come as a shock because I don’t like Peanut Butter in my chocolate (or my cookies). Actually I don’t like peanuts in my deserts at all. I am still the kid who will easily turn down a Snickers or a Reese’s. Ick. 

But these are a  classic that my mom made growing up so this is the only PB cookie I will eat. To give it a cocoa hit I used a Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter instead of the regular stuff. It gave them a slight cocoa flavor which was perfect. 

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Adapted from Betty Crocker

Makes: about 2 dozen

1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar

1/2 Cup Packed Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter

1/2 Cup Butter (1 Stick)

1 large egg

1 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Addition Granulated Sugar to roll the cookies in. 

 

• Heat oven to 375 degrees.

 

• In a large bowl, mix the granulated sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, butter, and egg until well combined. Stir in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

 

• Roll the dough into a 1 inch ball then lightly coat the cookie dough ball in the extra granulated sugar and place on a ungreased cookie sheet. To get the crackle top finish, do not flatten the cookie. However, you can use a fork to flatten the cookie which will give you the classic peanut butter cookie design.

 

• Bake about 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for about 5 minutes. Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Dipped Oatmeal Chewies: Blogger Cookie Swap

For the past month I’ve been hiding a little secret. I signed up to be part of a Blogger Cookie Swap!

Almost a month ago I signed up to send 3 dozen cookies out to 3 bloggers. In turn I would receive 3 dozen cookies from 3 other bloggers. It was an incredibly fun and delicious challenge.

Now, this makes me a bad blogger, but I sort of snacked all the goodies before pictures could be taken. What can I say? I’m a sucker for getting mail, especially when it’s in the form of delicious cookies. Lucky for me, I didn’t get them all at the same time and I was able to have wonderful desserts over the last few weeks.

The first batch I received were the Mint Middles from Stacy at WhatCupcake. I also received a dozen of Aunt Thelma’s Butterscotch Cookies from Vesta, and a dozen Double Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies from Kitchen Savvy Mom. Sorry I didn’t take pictures …they were just THAT good!

For my part of the swap, I chose to got with a spin on the classic Oatmeal Cookie recipe. My goal was to have a simple oatmeal cookie with a hint of orange, dipped in dark chocolate. Unfortunately the orange wasn’t as pronounced as I had hoped so they turned out to be dark chocolate dipped oatmeal cookies.

Dark Chocolate Dipped Oatmeal Chewies

Adapted from the Quaker Oatmeal Cookie Recipe

Makes 3 Dozen

1/2 Cup + 6T Butter, softened

3/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup White Sugar

2 Eggs

1t Vanilla Bean Paste (equivalent to about 2-3 teaspoon of extract)

1-1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour

1t Baking Soda

1t Ground Cinnamon

1/4t Salt

3 Cups Old Fashioned Oatmeal

1T Orange Zest

Juice from 1 Small Orange

6 oz Dark Chocolate

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars.
2. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beat until combined.
3. Add Vanilla Paste
4. In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, and baking soda. Stir to mix evenly.
5. Add the flour to the butter mixture, combine well.
6. Add the Orange Juice and Orange Zest
7. Add the Oatmeal, mix well.
8. Drop the batter, by the tablespoon onto a cookie sheet and bake for 8 – 10 minutes. Make sure to keep an eye on them, they will brown and burn on you quickly.
9. While the cookies cool, melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler.
10. Dip, Drizzle or spread the chocolate on the cookies.
11. Cool completely to allow the chocolate to firm up.

The combination of the dark brown sugar and the orange juice give these cookies a deeper sugar flavor and chewier texture than the traditional oatmeal cookie. I think it mixes well with the dark chocolate.

Due to the packaging I used, I had to trim the size of the cookie down a bit. I used a small mouth drinking glass, dipped in white sugar, to cut out clean circles. After they were trimmed down, I spread dark chocolate on the bottom of each cookie.

I hope you enjoy!

Linking To: Funky Junk Interiors