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