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

Chocolate Cherry Cinnamon Pistachio Cookies

Another recipe that I found where I could use the cinnamon pistachios was this chocolate chip cookie recipe with dried cherries and pistachios. This comes from a blog that focuses on bread and sourdough items. I edited this recipe a little, based on the ingredients that I had and the attempt to make a fairly standard cookie.

This recipe initially called for sourdough starter discard, which was not something that I had on hand. I have never had good luck with sourdough starter! Later I found out that this is something that my friend at work has, since her husband bakes sourdough bread. Of well, it was not a large quantity, so I omitted it from the recipe. I am not sure what the sourdough discard would add to the cookies, maybe a little more flavor? It wasn’t something that you traditionally see in a recipe.

This cookie started as a chocolate chip cookie, and the original recipe had you sprinkle the cookies with chopped pecans and then top them with dried cherries. I decided to add the pistachios and dried cherries to the cookie dough, which makes for a very chunky cookie, but they were great. A couple of cookies really spread around the edges, but that was just a few. The rest baked up without issue, and just looked wonderful. The cookies are chock full of add-ins, but that just makes these cookies interesting.

Chocolate Cherry Cinnamon Pistachio Cookies
1 cup butter, melted
200 grams sugar
70 grams brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
275 grams flour
300 grams chocolate chips
50 grams cinnamon pistachios, chopped
1 cup dried cherries

In a large mixer bowl, mix together the melted butter, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Once the mixture is cohesive, add the eggs and vanilla, beating on medium-low to combine. Stir in the flour and the chocolate chips. Once the dough is almost uniform, add the pistachios and dried cherries and stir in low until the dough comes together.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

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

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and shape the dough into 1-1/4” rounds. Place the rounds on the prepared baking sheet, leaving space between the cookies.

Bake for 11-13 minutes, until the cookies are browned around the edges and set. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Art, Bread, Love

Cinnamon Pistachio Biscotti

My husband and I often pick up special ingredients at the store when we see them. Then we have to figure out what to make with those ingredients. Sometimes it isn’t too difficult, but for this particular ingredient, we had to think a little more. We had bought cinnamon pistachios, which naturally goes into any number of recipes, but we wanted to make a couple different things with the pistachios.

We both looked online and found a few recipes, including this recipe for biscotti. I will say that biscotti can be awfully dry, so I don’t usually bake mine quite as long as the recipe states. For this recipe, I used cinnamon pistachios in place of the cinnamon and plain pistachios. I still added some ginger, because I love ginger, but it’s up to you. I left out the cloves; that seemed like too much. Don’t skip the cinnamon chips. They really do add a lot!

Since I want to make multiple recipes with the cinnamon pistachios, I ended up making half of the recipe of biscotti, instead of the full recipe that I have here. Biscotti is quite forgiving, and you can mix it up somewhat depending on what you like or don’t like. I really liked the flavor of this biscotti, which is different for me! The cinnamon pistachios are excellent, and I am glad that I have more to use in another recipe!

Cinnamon Pistachio Biscotti
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup chopped pistachios
1/3 cup cinnamon chips

4 ounces white chocolate
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until light. Add the eggs, one at a time, then mix in the vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Once the dough is almost together, stir in the pistachios and cinnamon chips.

Divide the dough into two halves, shaping each half into a log about 12 inches long and about 3 inches wide. Place on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until firm and lightly browned. Allow to cool 15 minutes.

Slice each dough log cross-wise into ¾” thick slices. Place the slices flat on the baking sheet.

Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven; the cookies will firm up as they cool

Melt about 4 ounces of white chocolate with 2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cooled biscotti. Allow the white chocolate to set before serving the biscotti.

Recipe from Italian Food Forever

Graham Crumb Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you read this blog with any frequency, you will be aware that my husband often complains that I don’t make enough chocolate chip cookies. That is true, as it needs to be quite a different chocolate chip cookie for me to add it to my blog. I came across this recipe and it seemed interesting. I have made a couple of items with graham cracker crumbs, but not this recipe exactly. I figured it would be nice to make a chocolate chip cookie variation.

This recipe originally called for mini milk chocolate chips, but I didn’t have those on hand, so I used regular sized milk chocolate chips. I need to restock some of my baking chips, and I will see if that’s something that is available here. I gather recipes from bloggers that live all around the world, so sometimes I have to be creative with specific ingredients.

These cookies come together like traditional chocolate chip cookies, simply with the addition of graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon. I like cinnamon a lot and it pairs well with milk chocolate, so I wasn’t surprised to see that added to this recipe. Some people don’t like the idea of adding extra flavors to chocolate chip cookies, but I think this one is fine. The graham cracker crumbs and the milk chocolate chips add a lovely sweetness to these cookies, which is hard to resist!

Graham Crumb Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups milk chocolate chips

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

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat on medium for several minutes until light. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and graham cracker crumbs. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. When the dough is almost cohesive, add the milk chocolate chips and mix on low to incorporate.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes, until cookies are set. The cookies will continue to bake a little as they cool. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Lord Byron’s Kitchen

Sticky Toffee Pudding Cookies

I really need to get back in the swing of baking, but now that my schedule is getting back to normal, I am very hopeful that will happen. My husband sent me this recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding Cookies, as he knows that we both love sticky toffee pudding. He asked if I had dates, a critical ingredient, and I did. I typically buy chopped dates, since dates are so sticky, but I had whole dates. For this recipe, that was fine as it all goes into the food processor.

This is a different method of making cookies than I am used to. You mix the flour in the mixer bowl and then handle the wet ingredients in the food processor, then mix the two together to make a dough. It worked fine, although I think if you quizzed someone about whether these contain dates, they may not know as they aren’t obvious.

I used fairly small caramels that I had bought at a local fair, which were about 2 centimeters square. I cut them in half and that was great for these cookies. If you have larger caramels, then adjust accordingly. You are supposed to roll the dough balls in sugar, but I forgot and they seemed to turn out fine. These taste so much like sticky toffee pudding, with the wonderful dates and the spices, and the caramel adds that sticky element that makes it that much more special.

Sticky Toffee Pudding Cookies
235 grams flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon grated nutmeg
85 grams dates, roughly chopped
67 grams sugar
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
¼ cup molasses
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
170 grams butter, melted and cooled slightly
Soft caramels, cut in pieces

In a large mixer bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg; set aside. In a food processor, combine the dates, sugar, brown sugar, molasses, egg, and vanilla. Pulse until smooth (or nearly smooth). Add the butter and pulse again, until the ingredients come together.

Add the date mixture to the flour mixture in the mixer bowl. With the mixer running on medium-low, stir until the dough comes together, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as needed. Once the dough forms, refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

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

Shape the dough into 24 balls, each about 1-1/2” inches. Place a piece of caramel into the top of each cookie, flattening the dough slightly.

Bake for 8-9 minutes, until the cookie looks set. The caramel will be molten at this point, so be careful. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Hailee Catalano

Orange Poppy Seed Cookies

I think that the first cookie that I post each year is probably the hardest, as I have to decide what to make, what isn’t too much, likely what isn’t too sweet, etc. I didn’t end up posting last week because we were traveling, and I certainly had enough sweets and chocolates around that I was just fine. Now I am in the process of sorting through what we have, throwing out what is stale, and moving on, although I have a feeling that some of the treats we have on hand will last some time.

What should I make? This cookie seemed good, with the flavors of poppy seed and orange. I don’t traditionally bake a lot with orange, but it is in season right now so the time is right. I don’t use poppy seeds a lot, and as they tend to go stale, I decided to replace my supply. If you have had poppy seeds in your cupboard for a while, this might not be a bad idea.

This doesn’t make a huge batch of cookies, just over two dozen and I figured that was a good number. I ended up using the two tablespoons of poppy seeds that I had bought, and at least I know that they are fresh! I’m never sure if I should use food coloring or not, but I did add some orange powdered food coloring since I had that on hand. Ok, one or two cookies are a little streaky, but that’s not the end of the world. These are a lighter, refreshing start to the new year!

Orange Poppy Seed Cookies
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg + 2 yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons orange extract
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons orange zest
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

½ cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons orange juice
Additional orange zest

Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until light. Add the egg and egg yolks and combine again on medium speed, until incorporated. Stir in the orange extract. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, salt, baking soda, orange zest and poppy seeds.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, using about 1-1/2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cookies are lightly browned along the edges. Allow the cookies to cool for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

To finish, whisk together the powdered sugar and orange juice and drizzle on the cookies. Sprinkle with additional orange zest if desired. Allow the glaze to set before serving.

Recipe from Mom on Timeout

Highlights from 2024

It seems like each year gets busier and busier, but I hope that everyone had an excellent holiday season! While I don’t necessarily bake as much as I used to, I love the time that I do have in this create process. Life is hard sometimes and too busy, and these are distractions to look forward to. No recipe this week; I am looking back at some of my favorites from 2024.

Reese's Pieces Oat Cookies
This gluten-free cookie is a wonderful combination of peanut butter and oats. You would never know it was gluten-free, and it’s a great cookie to add to your repertoire.

Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Bars
I love snickerdoodles, as it was the first cookie I remember making with my Dad. This bar cookie, with an added cheesecake layer, is absolutely wonderful.

Bee Sting Bars
This cookie is based on the Bee Sting Cake, which I would love to make but looks tricky. These are much easier to bake and still contain the flavors of honey and almonds.

Cookie Dough Brownie Cookies
These are a substantial cookie, and they were the perfect choice for my friend’s birthday. Cookie, topped with cookie dough, covered in chocolate. What could be bad? 

Almond Frangipane Cookies
I made a couple of almond cookies this year, all of them have been so good. This one uses almond flour, some others use almond paste. Either have delightful flavor that can’t be beaten.

Paradise Slice
This is a Scottish Christmas cookie, and it is so different. It combines currants, almond flour, and glacé cherries. They were so good I ended up making two batches!

I hope you have a great 2025!