Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Yes. Chocolate.Peanut.Butter.Cookies. Not peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Think peanut butter cookies, with a chocolate infusion.

You know how you move into a new place, survey all the cute bars/restaurants/stores right by your apartment, make a mental note to visit soon, and before you know it you're moving out and realize you never went? It's happened to me more than once, and this time I am really kicking myself. I used to walk by Peanut Butter & Co. on my way to and from work when I lived on Thompson Street in the Village. It's a little restaurant that serves only peanut butter sandwiches, and their brand of peanut butter. This isn't your ordinary peanut butter though. Check out the selection they sell in the grocery store in my building:



I'm an idiot for never going. And now I always see their fun peanut butters in the store, but put them in the same category as buying a whole cake - do I really need an entire jar of chocolate peanut butter? The answer was no, until I saw this recipe on cakespy.com, which turns regular peanut butter cookies into chocolate peanut butter cookies just by using Peanut Butter & Co.'s Dark Chocolate Dreams. How could I say no to that?



Here it is:

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter
1 large egg, at room temperature

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a stand mixer, beat together the butter, sugars, and peanut butter on medium speed just until smooth.



Beat in the egg. Add the flour mixture and mix just until the dough comes together. It will be a thick, solid mass of dough.



Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least two hours, but up to overnight.

Remove the dough from the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350. Break off pieces of dough and roll them into 1-inch balls. Place on prepared (parchment-lined) baking sheets. Leave 3 inches between cookies. Lightly flatten and make a crosshatch pattern on each cookie using the tines of a fork.





Bake, rotating the sheets midway through baking, until the cookies are dull and lightly browned around the edges but still lightly glossy/undercooked-looking in the middle (as they cool on the sheet they'll finish up). The bake time will be between 9-10 minutes.

Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the sheet (they will crumble if you try to remove them right away) and then transfer to a wire rack using a spatula. These cookies will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container.



Needless to say, these cookies are delicious. I'm sending most of them with Peter on his weekend trip, while I stay here and work through the weekend. Hear that? Someone is playing the world's saddest song on the world's smallest violin...