This an old recipe from Taste of Home which needed some new photos. That's also my excuse for making just about anything these days, but especially peanut butter and/or chocolate chips cookies. But truly, Chippy Peanut Butter Cookies deserve better photos because the are so good.
Baking Soda in Peanut Butter Cookies
As mentioned when I first posted shared this recipe, these cookies have a full 2 teaspoons of baking soda, which seems like a lot, but really has an impact on the texture. They have lots of wrinkles, crinkles and crispy edges. You do get that lingering aftertaste of baking soda which is not really unpleasant, but detectable if you know the flavor baking soda adds. The best way I can describe it is in wine terms -- the cookies have kind of a long finish, where you might recognize the soda.
Creaming Butter, Peanut Butter and Sugar
Another thing I never pointed out but is obvious from the directions is the butter, peanut butter and sugars are whipped for a long time. As we all know, this creates hundreds of tiny air bubbles which expand during baking, making the dough rise, crack and fall into perfectly circles. Baking powder would be a gentler leavening agent here and some great peanut butter cookies such as King Arthur's Triple Play recipe include it, but this recipe is perfect as it is with the baking soda, which also aids in browning and chewiness.
When I first made these my excuse was not photos, but rather that I needed to try Trader Joe's peanut butter chips, which I guess were new at the time or new to me. I haven't seen them in a while, but I also rarely go into Trader Joe's these days because it's so loud in there. But if you see the chips, let me know and I will send a courier for some.
The original Taste of Home version is here.
Recipe
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies aka "Chippy Peanut Butter Cookies"
Ingredients
- 1 stick salted butter, cut into chunks, cool room temperature (114 grams)
- ½ cup peanut butter, regular sweetened type like Jif (130 grams)
- ½ cup brown sugar (105 grams)
- ½ cup sugar (100 grams)
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (142 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt (increase to ¼ if using unsalted butter)
- 1 ⅓ cups your favorite chocolate chips and/or peanut butter chips (you can use more or less chips as desired)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment. These also bake well in a convection oven. If using convection, preheat to 330F.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, peanut butter and both sugars on low until things start to stick together. Increase the mixer speed and beat on medium high for about 5 minutes, stopping once or twice to scrape the side of the bowl.
- Add the eggs one by one, beating on low just until each egg is blended in. Increase the speed and beat on high for one minute Beat in the vanilla extract.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt until evenly blended, then add to the mixing bowl and beat on low speed until incorporated. Once you have a smooth dough, stir in the chips.
- Drop by rounded tablespoons or better yet, use a medium size cookie scoop to scoop up round balls of dough. Arrange on a dinner plate lined with plastic wrap, then cover and keep the dough balls chilled until ready to bake. Bake a few or ALL of the cookie dough balls right away.
- Arrange on parchment lined baking sheets and bake at 350F for about 12 to 15 minutes. If using convection, check at 8 minutes.
Anna says
Thanks Monica! This is one of my all-time favorite chocolate chip peanut butter cookie recipes. Another one I like (which you might want to try at some point) is this one. This recipe makes really fat, thick, peanut butter cookies. Chilling the dough is key.
https://www.cookiemadness.net/2005/11/gigantic-peanut-butter-chocolate-chunk-cookies/
Monica @DogHelpful says
I make a lot of chocolate chip cookies but I really enjoyed these. They have just the right amount of peanut butter - not too much! I also used a combo of semi-sweet chocolate chips and milk chocolate M & Ms. They were nicely shaped, nicely browned and a good combo of crisp and chewy
Katrina says
Looks like they turned out great. Yes, since I didn't taste them, the flavor of baking soda is not something my family would have noticed and told me about. 😉
Darn oven!
Karen Schmidt-Dill says
Well, the cookies turned out OK. They are perfectly edible, but the extra soda flavor is just a little off putting (as I sit here eating one of the cookies). They are decently chewy. I don't notice that there isn't any salt. You are correct though about the paleness of the cookie as it bakes and then SUDDENLY seeming like it was overbaked in a matter of seconds. I think I found 11 min. was about right. I certainly like the look of the cookies with the cracks and crevices and mounds. I would probably rate these as a 3 on scale of 1-5. The recipe said made 48 servings. I ended up with 6.5 doz. decent size cookies so I can't imagine how big of a scoop the originals were.
Holiday Baker Man says
The TJ's chips are pretty addictive!
Emily says
These look goooood. I hope you get your oven fixed soon!
I made some cookies similar to this tonight! I'm serious. I used chocolate chips, the PB TJ chips and oatmeal, but I made them cakey. I really like the TJ chips!
Anna says
Thanks Karen! If you have time, let us know what you think. I'll be interested in hearing how they are without the salt. The brown sugar was a good idea because it will probably make the cookies slightly chewier.
Karen Schmidt-Dill says
I mixed them up and the dough is chilling. I had chunky peanut butter, then increased the vanilla to 1.5 tsp. Left out the salt. I'm using unsalted butter but I figure between the peanut butter and the soda it will be plenty salty. I put in about 1/2 cup pb chips and a whole bag of Hershey's Special dark chips. (The dough sure tasted good.) I'll let you know how they turned out. Thanks for the hints about the baking time and color. OH, I did use dark brown sugar instead of light also.
Anna says
Karen, the batch I made in the toaster oven was crispier than the batch made in the oven. Also, you could probably make them even chewier by cutting the bake time a bit. What's strange about these is they go from being fairly pale to being really brown to the point where they appear overbaked, yet aren't. I think the extra baking soda might cause that. So if you want them to be chewy, make sure to take them out while they're still a little pale. They're probably good either way.
CindyD says
I bet half peanut butter chips, half chocolate chips would be good in my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe. Also bought some cinnamon chips to try and haven't decided on a recipe yet....
Karen Schmidt-Dill says
I'll be trying these, been on a peanut butter choc. chip cookie craze lately. Prefer the soft, chewy type, not the crispy kind. It is fun to read about a young person really enjoying experimenting with baking and cooking.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Sue says
I'm glad your oven is at least partially usable and on it's way to being totally fixed. It looks like you put your toaster oven to good use. I'll click over to Katrina's site to look at the recipe. I've not noticed the PB chips at Trader Joe's. I'll have to look next time.
Anna says
Kim, the bottom oven is working so I can't complain. I think the top part will be fixed by tomorrow.
Stephanie, I've only tried the peanut butter chips, but I noticed the other day that TJ's also had white chips.
Stephanie @ Plain Chicken says
YUM! I will be near a Trader Joe's next week. Definitely picking up a few bags of the peanut butter chips.
Kim F says
You had me at peanut butter! Yum!
Bummer about your oven! Will you have it repaired in time for Thanksgiving?
Crock pot Turkey? Toaster Oven stuffing? Yikes!