Peanut Butter Chunker Cookies

Peanut Butter Chunker Cookies - made dough July 1, 2017 modified from from Tastes of Lizzy T

If you go by the dates of when I’ve baked desserts in the past month or two, you’ll notice I’ve cut back a lot. That’s mostly because it’s been hot where I live and I can’t bear to turn the oven on as often as I used to. I’m cheap enough to hate running the air conditioner while I have the oven on. Seems expensively counter-intuitive and wasteful to do both. I prefer the air conditioner since I can’t stand the heat so I keep the oven off.

The good thing about cookies though is you can make the dough ahead of time and only bake off as much or as little as you want at any given time. Since it’s been hot, I had the oven on only long enough to bake a cookie sheet of these for work then called it a day.

The original recipe had a bunch of add-ins. I substituted a chopped up bar of Cadbury milk chocolate with caramel and peanuts that I’d bought at Heathrow when I had a connection on my way to Milan. Heathrow Duty Free and I are friends. I always walk out with slabs of chocolate to bring back home, distribute to my family and reserve some for baking.

This spread a little more than I thought it would and I don’t know if that’s because it was so hot when I made the dough and my butter was more soft than I would’ve liked. I did freeze the dough balls before baking but that doesn’t help as much if the cookie dough starts out soft because the overly soft butter made the dough more liquid before it could be frozen. But this was still a good cookie, especially if you like the peanut butter chocolate combination.

1 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup smooth peanut butter
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks
1/2 cup milk chocolate chunks
1/2 cup toffee bits

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add in dark brown sugar and beat until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add in eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined and add vanilla. Beat until combined.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking soda, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt. Add in two additions to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined. 
3. Fold in chocolate chunks and toffee bits. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze several hours or overnight.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space frozen dough balls on baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven, transfer cookies to wire rack and let cool completely.