recipe: peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Time for an easy, sweet recipe. You can whip up this dough in less than ten minutes, and it bakes in twelve. You can make it during a party (I did this weekend). These cookies are big, and have a soft, chewy texture, like the ones from a bakery or a good deli.

Read on for the delicious, easy, salty-sweet, all-American instructions.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Makes 28 three-and-a-half-inch cookies

3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cups salted or lightly salted roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 375°.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar for about 3 minutes.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Add the vanilla and peanut butter and beat just until incorporated.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to the butter mixture, mixing only until just incorporated. Stir in the peanuts and chocolate chunks.

For better cookies, press plastic wrap onto the dough, and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight, or up to a couple of days. If you're too impatient, just get on with it.

Using a 2” ice scream scoop, scoop the dough two inches apart onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Sprinkle the kosher salt over the tops of the cookies. Bake for 12 to 13 minutes in preheated oven, until the tops and edges of the cookies just begin to brown.