Tonight I baked three different kinds of cookies for our departmental holiday party. I don’t recall ever making that many cookies at once. It actually ended up being sort of a zen-like kitchen experience. Dough was prepared in the KitchenAid. Dough was placed in the refrigerator to chill. Mixing bowl was washed. Next dough was composed. Original dough was scooped. Cookies were baked. Rinse, lather, and repeat.
Frankly I’m just grateful that they all came out without incident considering the number of variables involved. One misstep and I might have ended up with peanut butter, cranberry, ginger cookies. Not so appealing, right? Two of the cookie recipes have been featured on the site before: Cranberry Orange Dark Chocolate Chip and Anita Chu’s Gingersnaps. The third, a Peanut Butter cookie with Mini Chocolate Chips, is a personal favorite of mine. The recipe is outlined below. As per usual all of my cookies are chewy not crunchy.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from The Got Milk Cookie Book by Peggy Cullen
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour (Note: I like to use 1 1/2 cups. It makes a thicker cookie).
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/3 cups (8 ounces) semisweet chocolate chunks or chips (Note: I use mini chocolate chips instead)
Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter, sugars, and vanilla until well combined. Beat in the egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl using a rubber spatula and beat for a few more seconds.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix on low speed just until absorbed. Stir the chocolate chips into the dough.
For perfectly uniform cookies, scoop the dough using a 1 1/2 inch diameter ice-cream scoop, leveling the dough off across the top before dropping onto the baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies begin to color (you’ll have to look carefully). Do not over bake. Let sit for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
