pb + chocolate = new love

I'm making cookies for Sam & Nancy as a thank you for watching Lucy this past weekend while Kev and I were in San Francisco. I decided to try a new recipe, the Barefoot Contessa Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies from her "parties" cookbook. Wahoo, they are delicious. I have finally found a cookie that cooks like my favorite cookies...Kate's chocolate chip cookies. They don't flatten out when you bake them (I really dislike flat cookies), but aren't too floury. The peanut butter flavor totally wins the battle with the other ingredients. The recipe is below with my tweaks to it as well. Enjoy!!

1/2 lb unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/2 c. light brown sugar, packed
3/4 c. granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temp (I highly recommend this for all baking recipes.)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. good smooth peanut butter (I used salted chunky - trader Joes brand)
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour (Could, but didn't substitute 1/2 ww flour and 1/2 white flour)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt (so much better than iodized salt)
1 lb semisweet chocolate chunks (I used 12oz. milk choc. chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of and electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla and peanut butter, and mix. (I mixed these in with a wooden spoon to prevent the batter from being over worked.) Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt (I didn't because I was feeling lazy) and add to the batter, mixing only until combined (with a wooden spoon). Fold in the chocolate chunks.

drop the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, using either a 1 3/4" ice cream scoop or a rounded tablespoon. Dampen your hands, flatten the dough lightly, then press the tines of a wet fork in both directions (I didn't flatten the cookies). Bake for exactly 17 minutes. Do not over bake. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Enjoy!