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!
August 22, 2026
We were staying in the countryside of northern Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula when an impending snowstorm threatened travel for several days. Knowing we’d be stuck inside the farmhouse for a prolonged period of time, we decided to make a ton of snacks to keep ourselves busy, fat and happy. Our first project was my favorite soft pretzel bites.
It was the middle of February up in Leelanau County, and we were facing a week of hurricane-strength winds and several feet of snow. Knowing the roads would be terrible in the impending blizzard, we hit Hansen's to stock up on food and snacks, before hunkering down in the Modern Farmhaus to get our hygge on.
The King Cake is an essential part of any Mardi Gras celebration. Honoring the Three Kings who brought gifts for the baby Jesus on Twelfth Night, King Cakes are generally consumed between Twelfth Night (King’s Day) and Mardi Gras.
St. Patrick’s Day is on the horizon, so I whipped up some macarons in Irish-themed flavors for the occasion. I decided to flavor them with coffee and Irish whiskey after stumbling upon Irish coffee mugs at a local consignment shop. But as is usual with most good alcohol adventures, one drink led to another, and my project snowballed into three boozy flavors: coffee macarons filled with Jameson whiskey buttercream, plain almond macarons filled with Bailey’s buttercream, and chocolate macarons filled with Guinness stout buttercream.
