Peanut Butter Choco-chip cookies

Ever since I read on JoyTheBaker’s blog about Peanut butter and chocolate together, I have been drooling. No, am not kidding. I have been literally thinking about how awesome peanut butter would taste if I make a brownie with it or a cake with it and so on…

For someone who has discovered peanut butter very recently(just about an  year ago), I have taken to it like its my staple diet. If I was not worried about the fat I’d pile on with all that eating of PB, I’d probably have it everyday for breakfast and lunch and dinner also. Yes, thats how much I love PB. And every time I have it with jam and bread for breakfast, I remember the taste the whole day and grin to myself. Yes, the way I love PB is just weird!

So imagine how much I’d have been craving and thinking about PB being in one of the baked dessert items. Yes, it was on my head ever since I read that post.

Just the other day, I came home frantically wanting to make something with PB. I rushed through my bookmarked recipes and found this recipe(the one listed at the bottom of this post, under Recipe Courtesy) . And I was about to start making it, when I realized I had run out of baking soda. Aaaaah! The horror! So I ended up making Dark Chocolate brownies, which turned out to be heavenly and is a totally different story. But remember, my PB craving has not been satiated yet.

As much as I loved the thought of the Dark Choc brownie around me – in my fridge, in my tummy, in my mouth – anywhere, I was waiting for it to be finished, so I could try something with PB. Yes, I have to wait for one dish to finish before I start baking another, this is the only way I can kill the guilt that eats me up!

Going to Mom’s house came as the perfect opportunity, and I jumped to it. That was when this awesome cookie was baked, and was loved by both of us. (For the total non-dessert eater that S was, its sad how I have changed him. He eats everything I try and gives me very constructive criticism if its gone bad and reaches out for the second piece every single time :D)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/8 cup water
1/2 cup oil 
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips
8 spoons of milk(If the batter is too dry, mix spoon by spoon)

Procedure:
1. The usual drill – pre-heat the oven to 200C and prepare your baking sheet. Mine is as usual foil wrapped on my grill
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the peanut butter with the sugars, water, oil and vanilla extract
3. Sieve the flours with baking powder, baking soda and salt
4. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients mixture and mix just enough
5. If you see that the mixture is too dry for you to roll the dough into balls, add spoon by spoon of milk into the batter, till you see the right consistency (This piece of advice came as a life-saver from N at the right minute for me)
6. Add the choco chips to this mixture and do not over-mix
7. On the baking sheet, take a spoonful of the dough and roll it into a small round ball. Flatten it on the sheet. If you would like to beautify it, do so with fork impressions, which is what I did.
8. Bake this for about 20 mins at 200C and flip the cookies to ensure that the other side is baked as well
9. Bake the other side for about 10 mins at 185C

This cookie does not melt in the mouth as I have seen, but it tastes brilliant. The PB taste is not too much to overpower your other taste buds, but is still distinctly felt. On cooling, this cookie does turn out to be a little hard, but I am okay with it, since the overall fat content of this cookie is way lesser than the other pure-butter ones. And next time I try this, I am going to do this with whole-wheat flour.

Recipe from – My Diverse Kitchen