Peanut Butter Pinwheel Cookies

I had all of my peanut butter recipes figured out for the month, and then I realized that there are five Fridays in September. Dang! My husband said I was not to worry and found some recipes that I could make. They were all a combination of peanut butter and chocolate, either as a pinwheel or as a marbled cookie. I chose this recipe for peanut butter pinwheels, as it looked really interesting.

The dough for these cookies is super soft, and I was worried how it would work to roll it out into a rectangle. Normally, when I see a recipe that says to roll out dough to a certain dimension, I run the other way, but I wanted to try it. In a way, with the dough being so soft, I did a combination of rolling and shaping with my hands to get the dough into the proper shape.

It’s sticky, so rolling up the dough was not a perfect thing. The original recipe said to refrigerate the dough for 30-45 minutes, but that wasn’t nearly enough time. I kept checking the dough, but I didn’t proceed until the dough was firm, 3-4 hours at least. Some of my cookies were small, and some were quite a bit larger. It doesn’t really matter, as they seemed to bake evenly. I wasn’t sure how the plain semi-sweet chocolate would do as the filling, but it was perfect! These cookies are crisp around the edges and the slight bitterness of the chocolate is perfect paired with peanut butter!

Peanut Butter Pinwheel Cookies
½ cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
½ cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1-3/4 cup flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until light. Add the peanut butter, milk, vanilla, and egg and stir on medium to combine. Add the flour, salt, and baking soda and mix on low until the dough comes together. The dough will be soft.

Transfer the dough in between two pieces of waxed paper. Roll the dough into a rectangle, 10” x 17”.
Peel away the top piece of waxed paper.

In a small bowl, microwave the chocolate chips until melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Spread the melted chocolate on the peanut butter dough, spreading almost to the edges. Starting on the long side, roll up the dough into a log. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and remove the plastic wrap. Slice the dough into ½” slices. Place about 8 cookies on each baking sheet.

Bake for 12 minutes, until lightly browned along the bottom. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Salad in a Jar