Sinful Sweet Sunday: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm famous for these cookies. Whenever I make them, my name is uttered with reverence, men propose to me after taking a bite, children become angels, and there's peace on earth and good will towards men. I've occasionally thought that these cookies could solve all of our world's problems.

Okay okay, all joking aside, these are really good cookies.

But my husband *did* propose to me after sampling the batter. True story. He grew up in a household where peanut butter desserts were nonexistent because his dad and his brother are allergic to peanut butter. You've got to keep the peace, after all. I guess these cookies couldn't solve the world's problems because of peanut butter allergies *sigh*. I can dream, can't I?

Of course, he was already planning on proposing to me that evening anyway, but telling people that he proposed after tasting the peanut butter cookie batter makes it sound better ;)

So, if you want to increase your popularity, here's the recipe for the famous peanut butter chocolate chip cookies!

(this recipe yields about 2-3 dozen cookies)

1/2 cup butter, softened (do not even go near the margarine)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder (please get the right measurement, I'll tell you why later)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (this is optional of course)

Preheat oven to 350.

First, you have your butter.

The butter is your friend...repeat after me

Then you've got your vanilla and sugars

There's your egg...somewhere that I haven't photographed.

And of course, your peanut butter

Cream them together.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to take a picture while mixing?

Add your flour (white or wheat will do. I used wheat flour)

Add your baking powder,baking soda, and salt. I accidentally added only 1/4 teaspoon baking powder instead of the required 3/4 teaspoon. I'll show you what happened at the end of this post.

Then mix some more!

You may want to taste some of the batter.

Now for the chocolate chips!

MMMMM!!!!

Mix it into the rest of the batter...

Oh yeah, now we're talking.

I know it's tempting to just eat it out of the bowl, but we've got to move on to the rest of it. Sorry.

Now you roll some dough into a 1-inch (give or take a little) in diameter ball.

Roll it in some sugar...

Then put it on your baking sheet.

And repeat until the baking sheet is full. Be sure to leave about a one-inch space between the balls.

And if you want to, get a fork and gently press into the balls.

Put them into the oven for 10-12 minutes.

Now, if you put enough baking powder in, they'll puff up.

But if you don't, this is what will happen.

I puzzled over why they came out like this, and then I realized that I didn't put in enough baking powder. Whoops.

But don't worry, they'll still taste good. Have them warm with a glass of milk, and life will be heavenly.

Linked to "Tasty Tuesday" at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.