Chocolate Peanut Butter Candy Cookies
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Last week I asked on Facebook what everyone’s favorite cookies were. My friend Jami suggested a few different recipes, including this chocolate/peanut butter cookie that has not only chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and Reese’s Pieces, but peanut butter cups as well. Hello peanut butter! I couldn’t wait to make these.
Since I’ve been working from home lately, I’ve lost my coworker guinea pigs and am now always looking for opportunities to try new recipes. Fortunately for me, every few weeks, my friends and I have been meeting up at a local bar for a night of pub trivia. Yes, it’s what it sounds like–trivia at a bar. It’s fun, I swear!
Anyway, the last couple of trivia nights I baked cookies and shared them with my team (aptly named, “Don’t toss the cookies”). We’ve even been sharing with the waitress who declared these cookies her favorite thus far (she even liked them more than the brown sugar cookies!). I thought they were good, but not my favorite. The chocolate is pretty subtle, but if you’re a peanut butter fan, these are definitely the cookies for you!
Photos of the process here.
Ingredients
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c. peanut butter
3/4 c. white sugar
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 c. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1 c. peanut butter chips
1 package mini Reese’s peanut butter cups, frozen and cut into halves (I used Trader Joe’s mini peanut butter cups)
1 c. Reese’s Pieces
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, and baking soda; stir into the peanut butter mixture. Mix in the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and Reese’s Pieces.
Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Push one peanut butter cup half (I used two mini Trader Joe’s peanut butter cups) into the center of each ball of dough. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool for 1 or 2 minutes on sheet before removing, or they will fall apart.
Yields 3-4 dozen cookies.
Recipe adapted from Cookie Madness via Night Baking.
Brown Sugar Cookies
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I think I’m in love. With a cookie.
It may not be the most handsome cookie around, but the taste makes up for what it’s lacking in looks. Imagine: chewy on the inside, crispy on the outside, and a rich and caramely flavor in every bite. My coworkers are going to love me (and their sugar high) tomorrow.
Perhaps someone well versed in the science of baking can tell me what the browned butter does to the cookie. Aside from the obvious, adding amazing flavor. And also, why is the salt added with the brown sugar rather than with the rest of the dry ingredients?
Just a note: My butter took around six minutes to brown, so don’t worry if three minutes go by and you’re wondering if you screwed up; you didn’t.
Photos of the process here.
Ingredients
14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (about 1 3/4 ounces)
2 cups packed dark brown sugar (14 ounces)
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (about 10 1/2 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Preparation
Heat 10 tablespoons of the butter in a pan over medium-high heat until melted. Continue to cook the butter until it is browned a dark golden color and smells nutty, about 1 to 3 minutes. Transfer the browned butter to a bowl and stir the rest of the butter into the hot butter until it melts- let this rest for 15 min.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a baking dish, mix granulated sugar and a ¼ cup of the brown sugar until combined well; set this mixture aside to roll dough balls in.
Mix flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl. Add 1 ¾ cup brown sugar and salt to cooled butter and mix until there are no lumps. Add egg, yolk, and vanilla to butter mixture and mix well, then add flour and mix until just combined.
Roll dough into balls about 1 ½ inches in diameter, and roll balls in brown sugar and white sugar mixture. Place balls about 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets.
Bake sheets one at a time until cookies are puffy and lightly browned, about 12- 14 minutes. (It says the cookies will look slightly raw between some of the cracks and seem underdone, but be careful not to over bake.) Cool on sheet for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a rack to cool.
Recipe from Cook’s Illustrated via South in Your Mouth.
Salted Oatmeal Cookies
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My mom is hosting a baby shower on Sunday 
(and a bridal shower tomorrow–two different women and tons of baking for us!) and these cookies are the soon-to-be mom’s favorite. She first told me about them months ago, saying she ate them all the time while living in Virginia but hasn’t seen them out here in California.
Thanks to Google, I found a recipe based on the bakery’s secret cookie. These are so good–easy to make, sweet and salty, and crispy on the outside and chewy (thanks to the brown sugar) on the inside. A near perfect cookie. Why just near perfect? Because if I were baking these for myself, you better believe I’d add chocolate chips.
Ingredients
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
Sea salt, for sprinkling
Preparation
In the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for a few minutes on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the sugars, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon, beating until the mixture is well blended. Reduce the speed to medium and add the eggs and vanilla extract, mixing until well incorporated. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour and oats, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary and mixing just until they are incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least an hour before baking.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Form the dough into golf ball-size balls and place about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Sprinkle sea salt generously on top of each ball of dough, as you would sugar. Bake 1 sheet at a time for 15 minutes or until the cookies are puffed and beginning to turn golden, being careful not to overbake. (The cookies should have a tender interior.) Transfer the cookies, still on the parchment paper, to a wire rack to cool completely.
Yields 18 cookies. (I made mine smaller and got about three dozen cookies.)
Recipe from The Washington Post.
Hamantaschen II
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I almost didn’t write this post because my Hamantaschen are so ugly. 
In fact, they’re even uglier than last year’s which I didn’t think was possible. And you wouldn’t know it from looking at my photos, but Hamantaschen are triangular shaped cookies, representative of Purim‘s villain Haman’s triangular ears/pocket/hat depending on whom you ask. I think in Hebrew school we learned it was either Haman’s hat (remember the song?) or ears, but really–triangular ears?
Anyway, Hamantaschen are soft cookies, traditionally with a poppy seed filling, but we grew up eating apricot ones, hence my apricot filling. I used the same apricot filling recipe (yum!) from last year but decided to give this new dough recipe a shot, and it’s good! However, I ran into one weird problem–I baked some on parchment and some on Silpats. The ones on parchment tended to open more and the ones on Silpats stayed sealed. Weird, huh?
Ingredients
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or margarine
1 1/4 cups sugar + a pinch for the egg wash
3 eggs + 1 for the egg wash
1/4 cup orange juice or milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Approximately 4 to 4 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Fruit preserves. (Not jam.) You can also use Nutella.
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening, butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and blend until smooth. If the mixture is too hard to blend or seems curdled, add about 1 tbs of flour to bind it.
Stir in the orange juice or milk and the vanilla. Fold in 4 cups of flour, salt and baking powder. Mix to make a firm but soft dough. Cover and let the dough rest for 10 minutes to give the flour time to absorb all the moisture. If the dough is too sticky to handle after ten minutes have passed, add extra flour up to 1/2 cup. The dough will be sticky when it’s ready, but you should be able to handle it without it getting stuck to your fingers.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the dough into 2 or 3 flattened discs and work with one portion at a time. Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured board to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Use a 3-inch cookie or biscuit cutter and cut as many rounds as you can.
In a small bowl mix 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of water and a pinch of sugar to make an egg glaze. Brush the rounds with the wash, then fill each with a generous 1/2 teaspoonful of your desired filling. Fold 3 sides of each circle together, creating triangles. I like to leave a little space in the center so you can see what the filling is (plus it looks pretty), but you can also seal your hamantaschen completely.
Brush the cookies with additional egg wash. If desired, sprinkle with regular or coarse sugar, and bake in the center of the preheated oven until golden brown, 18 to 25 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets.
Tips
Bake your hamantaschen in the upper third of the oven – usually the bottom part of the oven is too hot and may also cause premature bottom-browning. If you want to use leftover scraps to make more cookies, only roll them out once more because a lean dough like this one can only be rolled a couple times before becoming really tough.
This dough can be frozen for about 2 months or refrigerated (wrapped well in plastic) for one to three days. Just give it time to warm up before rolling it out. You can also freeze or refrigerate the filled triangles before baking. If you do this, just bake them without defrosting.
More photos here.
My notes
- I used orange juice rather than milk.
- I skipped the egg wash.
- Mine baked in about 15 minutes.
- I used a regular old glass rather than a cookie cutter and got about four dozen cookies.
Recipe from A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking by Marcy Goldman via Baking and Books.
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