I don’t think there’s anything in the world my girlfriend loves more than the combination of chocolate and peanut butter. She likes either one just fine by itself, but mix them together and get outta the way because she’ll knock your ass to the floor when she pounces.
It’s therefore no surprise she suggested these peanut butter chocolate chip shortbread cookies when I asked her what I should make to get us through a snowstorm up in Leelanau earlier this year.
After you combine all the ingredients, you’ll need to roll the cookie dough up and store it in the fridge for a couple hours. So make sure you plan ahead (or else you’ll be jonesing for your cookie fix with no recourse). But that’s exactly what makes this recipe nice: it produces a log o’ cookie dough, just like your favorite store-bought brand, and you can make the whole thing at once or just keep it in the fridge and slice off a few cookies at a time to make as-needed in the future.
One thing to remember: these are definitely shortbread cookies. Years of childhood cookie consumption have brainwashed our melons to associate chocolate chip cookies with soft, browned, oven-fresh delicacies. So your mouth might flip out a bit when you bite into these and remember they’re shortbread.
This also means that the cookie dough doesn’t change much upon baking, either in color or shape. By that, I mean your rounds aren’t going to expand or flatten in the oven, nor are they going to brown. Keep that in mind so you don’t accidentally over-bake them!
Here’s the recipe:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- Unsalted butter: 1 stick at room temperature
- Creamy peanut butter: ⅓ cup
- Vanilla extract: ½ tsp
- All-purpose flour: 1¼ cup
- Confectioner’s sugar: ¼ cup
- Koser salt/Sea salt: ½ tsp
- Milk chocolate chips: ¾ cup
Instructions
- Cream the butter and peanut butter together. Once completely combined, beat in the vanilla.
- Whisk to combine the flour, sugar, and salt, then add to your butter mixture and mix to combine. At first it’ll be quite crumbly; keep going until it comes together.
- Add the chocolate chips and stir until incorporated.
- Transfer your dough to a piece of waxed paper and gently form it into a log. If it crumbles, either continue working with your hands until it comes together, or do your best to press and hold to make it work.
- Roll your log up in the waxed paper, keeping the shape smooth, then twist the ends to tighten it up like a big Tootsie Roll. Stick your dough in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F and slice your log into ⅓” rounds. If they crumble, just press them back together.
- Bake your cookie rounds for 12-15 minutes, depending on thickness. Remember: these cookies won’t brown, per se, so they might look misleadingly “undone.” Don’t accidentally over-bake them!
- Let the cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack and/or stuff them in your face.
Sources
- Recipe adapted from The View from Great Island’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies.
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