A Cookie Thing

A perfect cookie is a beautiful thing.  It seems like it would be easy to accomplish, making the perfect cookie, but I don't think it is.  In fact, I think that the simpler the food, the tougher it is to achieve perfection.  And besides, what's perfect anyway?

As you may have figured out by now, I love to bake and I especially love to bake cookies.  And I'm not picky.  I love all kinds of cookies -- crunchy, chewy, and cakey.  In fact, I don't think I've ever met a cookie I didn't like.

One of my all time favorite cookies are peanut butter.  I mean, how can you go wrong?  They're both salty and sweet and go well with chocolate chips.  I've tried lots of different peanut butter cookie recipes over the years and have sort of mashed them all together to come up with the recipe below.  Let's just call it a little of this recipe and a little of that recipe all coming together to make a really nice peanut butter cookie.

When I made these earlier today, one of my best taste testers was here, Joe, my painter.  Joe has an opinion on almost every subject, and he proclaimed these to be delicious.  And, believe me, he would have told me if they weren't up to par because, as I said, he has a lot of opinions.  His crew liked them as well.

So, having gotten Joe's stamp of approval, I'm passing this recipe on to you.  Feel free to use bigger chocolate chips than I have but I like the little flecks of chocolate the mini chips create.

Recipe:  Nadine's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 stick plus 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup peanut butter
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325.

Using the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars together in a freestanding mixer.  Mix until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl.  Add the vanilla and the peanut and continue to mix to incorporate.

Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix well until a smooth dough is formed.  Add the chocolate chips and mix until evenly dispersed.

Drop 12 equal amounts of cookie dough on each parchment lined cookie sheet.  Make sure the cookies are spaced to allow for spreading during baking.  Bake in the preheated oven for 13 minutes, rotating once during baking.  Cool the cookies slightly on baking sheets and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.