Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sometimes I just need something to do during this “safer at home” Covid time period, and cooking is the hobby that I enjoy most. Today was a peanut butter cookie day, and that makes it a damn good day.

I altered a recipe I found on The Food Network for Peanut Butter Cookies by using less sugar, brown sugar rather than cane sugar, some spelt flour rather than 100% all purpose, added extra salt, and chocolate chips. Turns out I will make this recipe again so I’m documenting it here for my future use.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 cup peanut butter (I use the freshly ground stuff you can buy at Whole Foods if I don’t make it myself)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Hawaiian black lava sea salt (from Savory Spice)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup spelt flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup chocolate chips

The recipe is straightforward:

Preheat oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or butter your baking sheet).

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and beat until combined. Add the peanut butter and vanilla and mix well. Then add the salt and mix until combined. Add the baking soda and flour and mix well. Fold in the chocolate chips.

I made 20 balls with my dough and pressed them a little to flatten them out a bit before baking. The Food Network recipe said it yielded 24 cookies, so I apparently made my dough balls a little large. But, that just means my end result is a larger cookie and I’m OK with that 🙂

These baked for about 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Peanut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here’s one of my favorite Moosewood recipes.  They’re called “Sweet Pumpkin Cookies” in their New Classics Cookbook, and I’ve been baking them for years. As it’s pumpkin season, I picked up a local pie pumpkin and roasted it for this recipe rather than purchase canned pumpkin. Here are Moosewood’s ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp aluminum free baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup chopped toasted peanuts
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

I made a few changes for this batch- rather than one cup of sugar, I used 3/4 cups evaporated cane juice and 1/4 cup maple sugar, I used 1/2 cup peanuts, and skipped the raisins. I like the addition of maple sugar (which you can find at Savory Spice Shop) because maple makes most things better.

Preheat oven to 375

In your KitchenAid mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Then add the pumpkin, egg, vanilla, and mix well. In another bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to your mixer and mix until a gorgeous batter is formed. Mix in your nuts and chips, and be patient- don’t eat it all raw.

Drop by spoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet and allow a little space for the cookies to spread while baking. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until they’re slightly brown on the bottom. Transfer to a cooling rack, and dig right in.

These cookies are very flaky and I often refer to them as delicate. They’ll store better in the fridge than in a cookie jar on the counter.

Taste 4: Double Chocolate Chilies and Cherries Chocolove Chunk Cookies

For my fourth way to show him how much I care (about his waistline) I pulled out one of my original recipes I created a couple years ago: Double Chocolate Chilies and Cherries Chocolove Chunk Cookies.  The title is a mouthful because once these babies come out of the oven, you will have a mouthful of cookies all night. Warning: eat responsibly.

Local Boulder-based Chocolove makes a Chilies and Cherries bar and it’s one of my favorites.  I’m known to make spicy brownies (coming up soon in this 14-part series), but wanted to branch out a bit on my chocolate baked goods, so one day I got creative and made up this cookie recipe.  I love it.

Here’s how I made them:

• 10 oz bittersweet chocolate (Ghirardelli sells 10 oz bags of chocolate chips which work well)
• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup evaporated cane juice
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup unbleached flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 bars of Chocolove Chilies and Cherries in Dark Chocolate

Start by melting the bittersweet chocolate in a double boiler.

While it is melting, whip the cream into butter in your KitchenAid stand mixer. Then cream together the butter and sugar (evaporated cane juice). Next, add the eggs and mix well.

Slice the cold batter-logs into disks and roll them into ping-pong-sized balls.  Bake them on a parchment lined tray at 375 for 10-12 minutes.  They’ll still feel delicate in the middle when they’re done, so carefully slide them onto a cooling rack.

Enjoy!

Annie’s Naturally Bakery

And their breads are fantastic too!