Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies From Scratch!!!!

I have been doing a lot more baking lately now that I have accepted that baking requires exact measurements and I really have to pay attention.
I’m sort of a rebel in the kitchen.
And by rebel I mean that my knife skills are laughable, I have no idea how to do 1/8 of the fancy culinary tricks on Top Chef, and I have no formal or informal training.
I just sort of wing it.
Despite my being a complete novice in most respects, I am learning as I go.
The thing about baking that I have definitely learned is that most of the time 2 eggs means 2 FREAKIN EGGS!

I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with making the perfect chocolate chip cookies, and this weekend I got a little bit more creative and added peanut butter to the mix.
I used a recipe from one of my favorite baking blogs http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2008/03/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies/


The dough was much firmer than what I’ve gotten used to when making chocolate chip cookies, and the recipe called for 1/2 cup more flour than I typically use.
(this worried me)
The recipe also called for rolling the cookie dough balls in just a tiny bit of sugar before placing them on the parchment paper, but that sounded pretty smart and was actually a super nice touch!

I must say, they looked much prettier once rolled in sugar.

Peanut butter cookies just aren’t complete without their traditional criss-crossed fork pattern!

I only have enough cookie sheets and oven space to bake half of the cookie dough this recipe yields at a time and this served me well because the first batch I baked came out a little bit cakey and spread weird (which I had sort of expected might happen since the recipe called for that extra 1/2 cup of flour).
In order to salvage the rest of the dough I simply mixed in another half stick of butter and let me tell you, these came out SO MUCH BETTER!
I think perhaps the extra flour is due to the addition of the peanut butter, but the kind I used wasn’t very oily and maybe that made a difference.

I would definitely suggest only using 2 cups of flour, or adding an additional stick of butter to this recipe if you like crunchier, less cakey cookies.

They were absolutely scrumptious and I pawned them off quickly onto family & friends.

See? Even Nina approves!

Cookie Dough time

Is it just me, or does everyone else secretly fantasize about plunging their entire face deep into a mixing bowl full of chocolate chip cookie dough?

I made from-scratch chocolate chip cookies a few days ago and the results were very very nice. I don’t do a whole lot of baking and I realized that there were a few tools that I was missing that might have come in handy ie: cookie sheet, mini scooper, wax paper…
I just winged it and used my 3-15″x10″ pyrex dishes. Besides the cookies being too flat (my fault for not shaping them at all) they tasted pretty amazing for a first try.
I’m going to give it another shot tonight, using less sugar than the recipe calls for as I thought they were too sweet.
I stole the recipe from this fine lady:http://smittenkitchen.com
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F (165°C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.

3. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.

4. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time (for giant cookies) or a tablespoon at a time (for smaller cookies) onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

5. Bake larger cookies for 15 to 17 minutes, or 10 to 12 minutes for smaller ones (check your cookies before they’re done; depending on your scoop size, your baking time will vary) in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

I miss you Keebler Magic Middles.

My favorite cookie growing up doesn’t exist anymore, and I miss it terribly at certain times of the month. It was the perfect chocolate chip cookie, filled with the creamiest dreamiest chocolate frosting-like goo. But like too many of our favorite foods, it was taken from us too soon. In memoriam:

REVIEW: Girlscout cookies

If I didn’t whole heartedly believe that the idea of “the Devil” is complete and utter nonsensical bullshit, I would safely say that Girlscout cookies are pretty close to fitting the description of the Prince of Darkness. Yes, yes…I realize that also means that I’m basically calling Girlscouts themselves harbingers of the Devil…but remember, the Devil doesn’t really exist….and you know it’s true about those insanely addictive cookies they peddle. Which brings me to my point; I LOVE Girlscout cookies on an unreasonably passionate level. I saw those little demon girls set up outside the Bellemeade Kroger 3 weeks ago, panicked, and subsequently bought 8 boxes of cookies.
First of all, that is crazy on so many levels…the cookies are like 4 bucks a box, they are super caloric, difficult to stop eating once you begin, and why the hell would i need 8 boxes??!!
“This is bad” I kept saying to myself over and over on the way home.
Girlscout cookies are like crack cocaine. And who would have ever thought that the tiny little things were so loaded with saturated fat!?
Well, as I drove home the guilt and shame overwhelmed me and I decided I had to get rid of them as quickly as I purchased them!!
If I allowed them to remain perched upon the top of my refrigerator glaring at me everyday, beckoning me to break my calorie counting and indulge, I’d probably eat the entire box of Samoas in one sitting and hate myself.
Thankfully, getting rid of Girlscout cookies is extremely easy to do. My boyfriend was nice enough to take a few boxes to work with him and I also pawned off a few boxes onto my best friend. So, no serious harm done to the waistline.
I did, however keep one box of Samoas and one box of Tagalongs for myself.
Samoas are the perfect cookie in case you weren’t previously privy to this fact.
A delicate shortbread cookie dipped in caramel, coated in toasted coconut, and drizzled with semisweet chocolate….Its the holy grail of cookies.
I mean seriously, look at that thing. It’s begging you to bite into its sweet world of evil deliciousness…
And Tagalongs……woooooo….you just can’t mess with peanutbutter and chocolate, it’s a sacred combination that has been curing depression for years.
Ohhhhh drool I’m so glad they are out of my kitchen now. Thanks Girlscouts of America for providing me with a horrible cookie addiction. Seriously..thank you…they are so wonderful!