chocolate chip peanut butter cookies & such happy news.

Guys, I had a baby. Then I made you some cookies.

You can read more about her here.

Well, if I'm being totally honest, I made these a while ago and I just unearthed the photos somewhere in the 2,000+ I've taken since my daughter was born. That's always a nice treat - finding photos of peanut butter cookies in between snapshots of sweet baby meat. I can't think of anything better.

These cookies came from the Clinton Street Baking Company's cookbook where most of the recipes are more suitable for breakfast, but I went straight for the dessert section. Well, I returned to the dessert section nearly two years after first purchasing a digital version of the cookbook and then never baking from it for fear I'd ruin my Kindle with butter and sugar flying everywhere. And while I'm thinking about it, don't ever buy a cookbook on your Kindle. I don't know what I was thinking. It's totally senseless.

Do, however, make these cookies. They're exactly the sort of thing your mother might pack in your lunchbox for a field trip in first grade. They're studded with chocolate chips and softly scented with peanut butter but not overwhelmingly so. That was important to me. I'm not the sort of person who swoons over the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, it's so terribly rich and I don't like the sensation of it sticking to the roof of my mouth. No. Thank. You.

But these? These are different. They're peanut butter cookies for people who don't like peanut butter cookies. I know - I'm off my rocker, right? But even I couldn't resist sloshing a warm cookie through a tall glass of ice cold milk and tucking more than my fair share into my belly.

You should do the same.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies
Adapted from Clinton Street Baking Company Cookbook

The original recipe says to roll the dough into a log, without freezing, then slice it. This is utter nonsense. The dough is soft and sticky and would never submit to rolling without giving you a world of trouble. Instead, I scooped the dough with a regular cookie scoop and didn't have any trouble at all.

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter, chunky or smooth, not natural
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugars until light and fluffy - about 5 minutes. Add the egg and dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Scoop the dough into balls and roll in granulated sugar. Put the dough onto the baking sheet with about two inches to spare in between each one. Using the back of a fork, press down on each cookie to make a cross-hatch pattern.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until light brown on the edges and softly set in the center. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 20 cookies or so.