Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

I didn’t plan on this becoming sugar week, but when I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and realized I’d never posted any recipe at all for America’s favorite cookie, I had to share this variation, an old family favorite. Who doesn’t love chocolate and peanut butter?

My mother, rest her soul, had even less of a sweet tooth than I do and liked thin, crisp cookies. Less sugar per bite, I guess. Me, I’m greedier and like bigger, puffy, chewy cookies, especially when they’re chocolate chips. More cookie per bite! This same recipe serves both preferences just by changing one ingredient. It’s elementary food science.

For a thinner cookie, one that spreads in the oven, use butter for its low melting point. For my style, use vegetable shortening, which is stable at room temperature and has a much higher melting point than butter. Crisco vegetable shortening has a melting point between 117 and 119 degrees F (47-48C) whereas butter’s melting point is between 90 and 95 degrees F (32-35C).Vegetable shortening also has some air already beaten into it (the function of creaming), so we’re part way to a puffy cookie from the get-go.

The chopped nuts in this recipe are entirely optional and if you leave them out, you don’t have to use more chips to make up for them. She liked chopped peanuts, I prefer chopped walnuts, but this time used none. All three ways are good, so take your pick.

By the same token, use any chips you like. I used swirled milk chocolate and peanut butter chips this time, but have used semi-sweet, dark, even white over the years and have never heard any complaints.

Finally, my mom made these with a hand mixer but I usually use the food processor to chop the nuts and make the dough in just a few seconds. You’ll find directions for both methods.

With Mother’s Day just ahead, please think of these cookies — whichever way you make them — as a tribute to my mother. She’d want you to enjoy them and would insist you take some home. And you’d demur only long enough to be polite.

Ella’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

In memory of my mother

1/2 cup /128g peanut butter
1 stick /113g butter
OR
1/2 cup /84g vegetable shortening
1/2 cup /100g sugar
1/2 cup /110g light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
3/4 cup /100g all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup /168g semisweet chocolate chips or other chips
1/2 cup (8 TB) chopped peanuts or walnuts, optional

Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350F/180C/Gas 4.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment and set aside. Leave ungreased if not using parchment.

By hand or with a mixer:

Thoroughly cream for about 3 minutes the peanut butter, butter or vegetable shortening, sugars and egg. Stir in the flour and baking soda and mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips and, if using, the nuts.

In a processor:

Put the peanut butter, butter or vegetable shortening, sugars and egg in the workbowl and pulse 3 or 4 times to combine. Process 15 – 20 seconds to cream. Add the flour and baking powder and pulse several times until no flour remains visible. Add the chips and optional nuts and mix by hand or by pulsing 3 or 4 times.

For both:

Use about 2 TB of dough or slightly less for each cookie. Gently form the dough into balls without compacting the dough. Place 2″ apart and bake one sheet at a time for 10 to 12 minutes until golden. Let stand on the cookie sheet 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Yield: 18 puffy cookies or 24 thinner cookies

Related posts on From Scratch: About Creaming
Not all vegetable shortenings are labeled 0g trans fat, but the most popular is. Read more at Pie Crust, Crisco & Trans Fat.
Need a recipe for another American favorite? How about a batch of snickerdoodles?

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Tagged as: chocolate, easy, food science, quick, tribute