My Favorite Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

If there’s one thing that it is rare for me to turn down, it’s dessert. Somehow, no matter how much I’ve already had to eat, I can always make room for something sweet. That’s especially true when that something sweet involves the combination of chocolate and peanut butter. My roommate and I love the combination so much that we keep a container of Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups in our freezer at all times. 

Growing up, I baked a lot. Most weekends, I would use baking as my stress relief messing up the kitchen on a Sunday afternoon when I should have been getting ahead on school work for the week ahead. In college and in my first year after college, I didn’t find baking quite as enjoyable since the kitchen space I had to work in was limited. Fast forward to now, and although my roommate and I still have a relatively small kitchen in our house, I’ve started to bake in it more. The other weekend I was feeling especially in the mood to whip something up and settled on Elisabeth and Butter’s Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. I’ve followed Elisabeth for a while and given that all the other recipes of hers I had tried turned out deliciously I did not doubt that these would be any different.

What I didn’t expect was just how much I’d crave making these cookies again. Since we have a test kitchen in our office that puts the food they make in our break room to eat it’s not too challenging to get my cookie fix, but that hasn’t stopped me from wanting to make (and eat) these again. I think we can all guess what I’ll be adding to my grocery list this week…

You can see the whole recipe on Elisabeth’s site here, but I’ve also included it below in case you’re interested.

Ingredients:

1 stick salted butter, softened to room temperature

½ cup creamy peanut butter (I used JIF Natural)

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup light brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghiridalli and definitely added a few extra)

½ cup chopped dark chocolate bar (I skipped this step and opted for more chocolate chips instead)

Course sea salt (to sprinkle on top)

Instructions:

1.   Preheat oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.   In a mixing bowl (or kitchen aide), beat the softened butter for 2 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the peanut butter and both sugars and mix for 1 more minute. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined.

3.   Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour and baking soda until just combined, being careful not to over-mix. Stir in the chocolate chips and chopped chocolate.

4.   Using a large spoon, scoop the cookie dough on the parchment paper lined baking sheets and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges but still soft in the center. You don’t want to over-bake these cookies. Transfer to a drying rack and let cool completely.

Definitely a recipe worth writing down and keeping on hand! I’ve even shared some of the cutest baking/kitchen supplies below to inspire you in case you need extra motivation to make these.