The Best Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

I love a good peanut butter cookie and I have made a number of different variations of cookies with peanut butter. I came across this recipe and it is called “The Best.” Well, that is certainly up to discussion, but I thought that these had a good combination of peanut and peanut butter flavors. Whether they are the best ones ever is something that you can decide, but they are really tasty cookies!

I often make a half batch of cookies, in order to have a more reasonable amount of cookies around. (Hmm, I’m not even sure what that means. Oh well.) I did a full batch of these cookies as I was taking them to work, and I perhaps could have made a half batch. This made just over five dozen cookies, which is a lot. The original blogger noted that it would make a much smaller number, so the cookies she made must have been huge.

When I first started making peanut butter cookies, I often struggled getting the texture right. They were usually too dry. That isn’t a problem any more, and I am not exactly sure what makes the difference. These cookies, with the inclusion of honey roasted peanuts, have a nice crunch and overall the cookies are soft. The look extra special with the peanut butter chips on the top- not required but a good thing to add!

The Best Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
1 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
¼ teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2-⅔ cup flour
1 cup of peanut butter chips
1 cup of honey roasted peanuts
Additional peanut butter chips

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the melted butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Mix on medium until combined. Add the peanut butter, almond extract, and vanilla and stir again to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the baking soda and salt, and then with the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour. When the flour in the dough is almost completely incorporated, stir in the peanut butter chips and the honey roasted peanuts.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4” rounds and place on the prepared baking sheets. Top each cookie with additional peanut butter chips.

Bake for 11-13 minutes, until the cookies are golden and are just beginning to brown along the edges. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Fat Girl Hedonist

Rocky Road Fudge

I have to say that when I started making fudge recipes, I was worried that they would be complex, or they wouldn’t quite turn out right. As I have started to make fudge, I realize that most recipes are fairly easy and flexible, which is nice. That leaves me to explore different flavors and not have to worry too much about the technical aspects of fudge making. I will admit that some recipes are quite different (I have one of those coming up), do use a candy thermometer, but overall, I have been very pleased with the fudge I have made.

This fudge is flavored with rocky road, a favorite of mine. You probably have had rocky road ice cream, but in a fudge I thought it sounded so good. I sometimes have mini marshmallows on hand, but they get stale very quickly so you can’t buy those too far in advance. Other than that, this fudge calls for the classic flavors, just peanuts and marshmallows. You need one cup of peanuts for this fudge, and even with snacking through part of the jar of peanuts I had enough for this recipe.

With the addition of the marshmallows, this fudge does remain fairly soft. It sets up ok, but the marshmallows add an inherent soft and sweetness that is nice. I made mine completely in the microwave, which was great but I perhaps could have used a larger bowl. That last mix of all the ingredients was a challenge! Overall, this is another wonderful, simple fudge recipe that you can add to your holiday baking plans.

Rocky Road Fudge
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup salted peanuts

Line an 8” square pan with parchment and spray the parchment with nonstick cooking spray

In a medium glass bowl, combine the chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and the butter. Heat in the microwave for 90 seconds. Stir, and continue heating and stirring in 15 second increments until the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla, mixing until smooth. With a spatula, fold in the miniature marshmallows and salted peanuts.

Spread the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Refrigerate until set, overnight.

Remove the fudge from the pan and cut into 1” squares. Store in the refrigerator.

Recipe from Barefeet in the Kitchen

Salted Nut Bar Fudge

Ages ago, when my husband and I were on a holiday, we decided to visit the local candy/fudge/ice cream shop. This is not an unusual thing for us to do! Nothing says it’s a holiday like having a treat, even if the weather isn’t so cooperative. Since I live in Washington, I am used to all sorts of rainy weather most of the year. It’s been long enough that I don’t remember what the weather was like, but I do recall that the shop had salted nut bar fudge, and it was fantastic.

When I knew that I would be making fudge this year, I knew that I wanted to find a recipe that replicated the salted nut bar fudge when I was on holiday. I found a few recipes, and many of them called these items salted nut bar candy bars, but when you look at the ingredients, there is no question that this is fudge. I gathered the ingredients and went to work.

This recipe is made in an 11” x 7” pan, but you can certainly use a 9” square pan if that’s what you have available. You put half the peanuts in the base of the pan, make the peanut butter fudge, and then top with additional peanuts. The ones on the top don’t stick quite as well, but I did my best to press them in to stick. This fudge smells divine when you make it, which is not at all surprising with peanut butter chips, sweetened condensed milk, and marshmallows! This fudge is pretty sticky, but I think it truly captures the flavor of the salted nut bar!

Salted Nut Bar Fudge
3 cups roasted salted peanuts
2 1/2 tablespoons butter
2 cups peanut butter chips
2 cups mini marshmallows
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk

Line an 11” x 7” baking pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick spray.

Spread about half of the peanuts in the base of the prepared pan. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and peanut butter chips over low heat. Once the mixture is smooth, add the mini marshmallows and sweetened condensed milk. Continue to heat on low, stirring frequently, until the marshmallows melt and the mixture is smooth.

Pour the peanut butter/marshmallow mixture over the peanuts in the prepared pan. Top with the remaining nuts, pressing the nuts gently into the filling to secure.

Refrigerate until set, at least an hour. Lift the fudge from the pan with the foil and then cut into squares.

Recipe from Chocolate, Chocolate, and More

Peanut Buckeye Bars

When I first started baking, I can’t say I was very familiar with Buckeye candy. Online it says that it’s peanut butter fudge partially covered with chocolate, and they come from Ohio, hence “Buckeyes.” I have made all sorts of chocolate and peanut butter combinations, but only one other time have a made something called a buckeye, and that was a thumbprint cookie. Maybe the Ohio nomenclature never made it to Washington State, but I am happy to make anything chocolate and peanut butter.

This is an interesting bar cookie, with a chocolate brownie layer, topped with a peanut butter and sweetened condensed milk mixture. It calls for roasted peanuts, and my parents had a big jar of them so I asked if I could have a cup and a half. That saved me from buying them, but thankfully they are easy to find at the store. The recipe also called for chunky peanut butter but use whatever you have on hand.

These don’t take much time to make, but both the base and the topping are sticky and difficult to spread. The base is ok, and I wet my hands slightly to help. The sweetened condensed milk/peanut butter topping is sticky as can be, so I made little dollops and then spread it as best I could. I baked the bars for 38 minutes, and they were quite browned, so certainly you need to watch the baking time for these. I thought they looked a touch dry, but they were just wonderful, even along the edges. I would make these again but watch the time more closely.

Peanut Buckeye Bars
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups roasted peanuts, divided
14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup peanut butter

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the sugar, cocoa powder, flour, salt, and baking powder. Add eggs and butter and mix on medium until fully combined. Stir in 1 cup peanuts. Spread the dough into the prepared pan. The dough is sticky, so you may need to use damp hands to get the dough into the corners of the pan.

In a separate mixer bowl, combine the sweetened condensed milk and peanut butter. Mix on medium until smooth. Spoon on to the brownie base in little dallops and then spread into an even layer. This is very sticky and takes some patience to get the topping spread out evenly. Sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup roasted peanuts.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the topping begins to brown slightly. Allow the bars to cool completely before removing from the pan and cutting into bars.

Recipe from Heather at Sprinkle Bakes, via Go Bold with Butter

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

I have to admit that I made cookies this week a lot later than planned. I had a couple of different recipes in mind, but I couldn’t seem to decide which recipe to choose. All of a sudden, it was the last minute and I needed to get in gear. I again couldn’t decide, but I knew that I needed to make something that I had all of the ingredients on hand. I had my husband look at the recipes I had pinned, and he chose these cookies.

I had planned to make these cookies for a different occasion, as they don’t contain flour and I make gluten free cookies from time to time. I had recently brought home some salted peanuts from an abundance at work. I didn’t feel too bad as I figured they would likely return to work in a cookie form. In the end that didn’t happen, as I made these so late in the week, but more gluten free cookies are to come.

This is a very simple recipe, with just a handful of ingredients. I chose to use a combination of sugar and brown sugar, but you can use any blend that you’d like to make 1 cup. The dough is very soft and I refrigerated mine for a while, but it didn’t change the texture at all. Rolling the cookies in peanuts gives the cookies a nice crunch, and the peanut butter flavor is very pronounced.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup peanut butter
½ cup sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped salted peanuts
Additional chopped salted peanuts

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, and egg. Mix on medium until combined. Add the ½ cup chopped peanuts and stir to incorporate into the dough.
Shape the dough into 1-1/2” balls. Roll the balls in additional chopped peanuts and place on the prepared baking sheets. The cookies may spread; leave plenty of space between the cookies.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the cookies are set and the edges begin to brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The Big Man’s World

Browned Butter Peanut Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

A while ago, I picked up a bag of Nestle Mix-ins, which was a combination of chocolate chips, caramel pieces, and peanuts. Previously, I had only seen holiday themed varieties, and that just wasn’t right at the time. I knew I could do something with this combination and took them home with me. They have been in the kitchen and my husband sent me a couple of recipes that we thought we could adapt to what we had. This one was great as it had many of the same elements. My bag of mix-ins was 225 grams, which was less than the 425 grams in the original recipe. I added some chopped chocolate, and if I would have had peanuts on hand that would have also been good. They were absolutely fine as they were.

The first step of this recipe is to make a simple caramel by melting sugar. I’ll be honest, caramel can be fussy. Sometimes the sugar burns before it melts! This time I stirred the sugar when partially melted, and this helped so that nothing burned. It cooled beautifully on the baking sheet. When you bash it up or cut it up, the pieces are quite sharp! They also break and go everywhere, so now my kitchen is covered with shards of sticky caramel.

The original recipe warns that you shouldn’t refrigerate these much longer than the two hours specified in the recipe, as they caramel starts to soften. I baked the cookies in two halves, one after two hours and the next day. Honestly, I didn’t notice much of a difference. It didn’t seem like the caramel softened, and the cookies retained their crunch. The caramel bits on the edges of the cookies do get a little oddly shaped, but you can quickly reshape the cookies while they are warm. These cookies have a great combination of different flavors, and each bite is a little different. I’d be curious how tasty they are with even more peanuts, but they are great as it is.

Browned Butter Peanut Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
200 grams sugar

225 grams butter
150 grams sugar
150 grams brown sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
350 grams flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
225 grams/1 package Nestle Chocolate/Peanut/Caramel Mix-ins
125 grams dark chocolate, chopped

Make the caramel: place the 200 grams of sugar in a medium-large saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat, until the sugar is melted. I found it best to stir the sugar once it was partially melted, otherwise it could burn. When melted, the sugar will be a deep amber color. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat. Allow to cool for 30 minutes, until it hardens.

Make the cookie dough: in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter. Once the butter has melted, continue to cook the butter, stirring occasionally, until the butter smells nutty and is golden brown. Don’t look away as the mixture can go from golden to burnt very quickly. Pour the browned butter and any browned bits into a bowl and cool for 10 minutes.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the browned butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium to combine. Add the eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add the Nestle mix-ins and chopped chocolate. Bash/chop the cooled caramel into small pieces and add to the dough. Stir on low until the additional ingredients are incorporated.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for two hours.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into mounds, about 1-1/2 tablespoons and place on the prepared baking sheets. I placed about 8 cookie per baking sheet, so they would have space.

Bake for 12-16 minutes, until set. You don’t want to over bake the cookies, as the caramel gives the cookies a good crunch. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The Boy who Bakes

Peanut Butter Chunker Cookies

I have to say that I am always a fan of a comforting, homey cookie. This cookie is not fancy, but it has so many excellent elements that it has to be great! I think that this is a recipe that you can tailor to ingredients that you may have on hand, if you want to use up things in your cupboard. I did a big clean of my baking cupboard recently and I was surprised that I didn’t have as many half full bags of chocolate chips, etc. I’m stocked up again!

The original recipe called for both light and dark brown sugar, but I just used light brown sugar. Ages ago I used to keep both on hand, but I just don’t use it up fast enough to keep both on hand. I substituted regular semi-sweet chocolate chips for dark chocolate chips, and I used the version of toffee chips that has chocolate in them, but either type will work. I used a bag of pretzels that I bought at the college cafeteria; it’s handy having a cafeteria so close.

This recipe makes a large batch, nearly five dozen. I may have made five dozen had my husband not helped eat some of the dough. The dough is quite soft, and I was worried how they would bake up. You often refrigerate peanut butter cookies to help counteract the very soft dough. These cookies were fine, but you do need to be careful that you don’t over bake the cookies. While they do set as they cool, it’s ok to if they cookies are still a little gooey. They cookies are so very good, a perfect mix of nutty, sweet, chocolatey and salty.

Peanut Butter Chunker Cookies

1 cup butter, room temperature

2/3 cup peanut butter

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 cup rolled oats

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup toffee bits

1 cup pretzel pieces, crushed

1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts

Preheat the to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and peanut butter on medium until creamy. Add the brown sugar and beat on medium until light. Add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla and mix until combined. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, oats, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Add half of the flour mixture and mix on low. Add the other half of the flour mixture and mix on low until nearly fully incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, toffee bits, pretzel pieces and honey roasted peanuts.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, using a generous tablespoon of dough for each cookie.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are set. The cookies may not look fully baked but will firm up as they cool. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.  

Recipe from The Sweet and Simple Kitchen

Caramel Peanut Butter Cookie Cups

I really like making cookie cups, and there are so many possibilities for different flavor combinations. This cookie would actually be good to make after Halloween, if one were to have left over candy. There is a lot of different components in these cookies, and honestly you could adapt the elements to whatever you have on hand. The caramel is essential, but you could use any candy. This version uses regular and white chocolate peanut butter cups. I’ve never had the white chocolate ones before!

When I make cookie cups, I usually use a mini muffin pan. This recipe uses a regular sized muffin cup, which makes for large cookies. The original recipe makes 24 cookies, and I did, but I had enough dough left over to make another dozen. Of course, in writing up this recipe, I realized that I used too much brown sugar, but hey, these are super sweet anyway, so it seemed not to be much of an issue. These are very gooey, tasty things, and now I need to figure out what to make with the remaining cookie dough I have left!

Caramel Peanut Butter Cookie Cups

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

24 square caramels

8 oz Mini Peanut Butter Cups

8 oz White Chocolate Mini Peanut Butter Cups

1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 12-cup regular-sized muffin pans with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl beat the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and sugar on medium until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat again on medium. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Using a 1-1/2 tablespoon scoop, scoop the dough into the muffin cups. Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the muffin pan.

Partially bake the cookies until the edges start to brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven. In each muffin cup, place a caramel square, then two mini peanut butter cups and two white chocolate peanut butter cups. Sprinkle each cup with some peanuts.

Return the cookies to the oven and bake for an additional 4-5 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Using a flat metal spatula, loosen each cookie from the muffin pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from This is Not Diet Food