Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This past weekend, I was browsing through my cookbooks, and discovered that I had never made anything from this one that I got as a gift: Damn Good Food, 157 Recipes from Hell's Kitchen. I'm not talking about the TV show. Hell's Kitchen is a funky restaurant in downtown Minneapolis that originated before the TV show. I've actually been to this restaurant too! The inside walls are crimson red and decorated with crazy art and the servers wear interesting outfits including pajamas. And the food is really good! I thought it was about time to find something to make out of this cookbook. I found quite a few that I will make very soon! But, since it was late Sunday afternoon, I needed something that wouldn't take too much time. Since we had already planned dinner, I thought a dessert item was in order, and that's when these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies popped out right at me. The best part to me was that it said it makes 15 cookies. Perfect! I didn't have time to make batches of cookies and end up with dozens of cookies that I didn't need. So I dove right on in and started making the batter. It was fast and before I knew it, I was portioning the dough into 15 large balls onto a cookie sheet. I wondered how large to make them. I settled on a size about the size of a tennis ball. Wow, these cookies are going to be awesome! I ran out of room with 12 down on one sheet, and realized that I was not even half way through the batter. This dude must have meant huge dough balls. At this point, I resigned to the fact that I was going to end up with about three dozen very large cookies.  I got them all out on cookie sheets and through the oven. They came out perfectly and were insanely delicious. Seriously sooooo good! Everyone knows that the combination of peanut butter and chocolate is one of the greatest combinations. This recipe certainly needs to be in your mind whenever you have a craving for the peanut butter and chocolate combination!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

from Damn Good Food, 157 Recipes from Hell's Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups peanut butter

2 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Add butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer, and cream until pale and fluffy, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl frequently. Add peanut butter, eggs, and vanilla, and continue to mix until blended. Whisk together salt, soda, and flour in a separate bowl. Slowly add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture, blending until just combined. Add chocolate chips, and mix until just combined.

Portion cookie dough into 15 large balls (more like HUGE balls), and place, evenly spaced, onto a rimmed baking sheet. Press down lightly on the top of each ball. Place on the center rack of the oven and bake 8-10 minutes, until golden brown (I had to add about 4 minutes). Remove from the oven and cook cookies on a wire rack.