Gourmet Thick Peanut Butter Cookies from Lady Behind the Curtain

Gourmet Thick Peanut Butter Cookies - made dough February 24, 2024 from Lady Behind the Curtain 

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 10-ounce bag peanut butter chips

1 cup peanuts, chopped

1/2 cup granulated sugar, for topping

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add peanut butter and beat until combined.
2. Add eggs and vanilla extract, mixing until combined.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking powder. Add in 2-3 additions to butter mixture, mixing on low speed until just combined.
4. Add peanut butter chips and chopped peanuts, mixing until evenly disbursed.
5. Portion into 14 equal-sized dough balls and flatten slightly. Roll in granulated sugar. Chill, covered, for at least 1 hour.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space chilled dough balls, allowing room to spread. Bake 16-18 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw or shiny. Let rest on baking sheets for at least 10 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

If you thought I was going to caveat this post with my usual "this was good but I'm indifferent to peanut butter so it was just okay", you'd be wrong. These cookies were fantastic, my indifference to peanut butter be damned.

I can't even tell you why I liked them so much other than they lived up to their name of being "thick" and the texture was perfect, not crisp or crumbly but not too soft and fragile. Just right. I didn't even mind the peanut butter chips or the granulated sugar coating.

A couple of caveats though: as you can see from the pictures, these hardly spread at all so they ended up being more like cookie mounds rather than thick cookies. I baked them from frozen dough which partially explains it but I don't think these would spread much even if baked right after mixing.

If you want the uniform thickness of a larger cookie like Lady Behind the Curtain has them on her blog, shape the dough into thick, flatter discs or basically the size and thickness you want the cookies to end up being since, really, these hardly spread at all.

They are a bit delicate while warm so let them cool completely. The cooled texture will be worth it. And defying my usual bias against nuts in cookies, these were perfect with chopped peanuts mixed in. Peanuts in the cooled cookie didn't soften and added a nice crunch to the thick cookie. 

My niece and her boyfriend are peanut butter lovers so I'll have to remember to make these for them next time I see them. If *I*, the indifferent-to-peanut-butter eater, really, really liked these, I imagine actual peanut butter lovers would love them.