tasty tuesday: chocolate peanut butter chip cookies

Chocolate and peanut butter.  One of the very best combos in life!  Second in my books to salt and caramel...but only by a hair.

These cookies were my favorite as a kid, and baking them this week made me very nostalgic.  

Coming home from school to a fresh batch of these was just the best.

The chocolate cookie dough base for these cookies is the same as our triple chocolate cookies, and is oh so fudgey and delicious!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup softened Butter (or margarine)
1 cup White Sugar
3/4 cup packed Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon of Salt (only if you're using unsalted butter)
1 1/4 cups unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 3/4 cups Flour
1 3/4 cups Peanut Butter Chips

Directions

1) In a large bowl, cream together margarine and sugars.
2) Add eggs and vanilla, and mix well until light and fluffy.
3) Mix in salt and baking soda.
4) Add in cocoa powder and mix (I like to add it before the flour, to try and reduce the puff of cocoa powder that sometimes goes everywhere!
5) Then mix in the flour.
6) Finally, stir in the peanut butter chips.
7) Place on cookie sheet in 1 1/2 inch balls. (squish down a bit for flatter cookies if you'd like.)
8) Bake at 350 degrees for 9-12 minutes.

Now you have a batch of deliciousness to share with friends!  Or you can hoard them...whatevs.  No judgement here.

My momma found me this vintage cocoa tin, and it just cracks me up!  If you look closely you can see mega nun-ception happening....and on the other side there are flamingos.  Why?  I have no clue....but it makes me smile every time I look at it.

I hope you enjoyed!  And remember to make these next time you're experiencing a major choco-peanut butter craving!

p.s.  ♥ kelsey 

tasty tuesday: peanut butter swirl bars

Here at ps: ♥  we love our chocolate and peanut butter combo.  As you can tell here, here, and here.

Is there anything better? 

This recipe is an old family favourite.  I remember being in awe that my mother could make something so fancy!  How did she makes those delicious chocolatey swirls?  They are almost like a brownie, but they have peanut butter in them.  It tastes like angels are dancing on my tongue!

I figured that they must be very hard to make.

Guess what?

They're not.

Peanut Butter Swirl Bars

Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter

1/2 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2  eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Mix together the butter, peanut butter, and both sugars.

2.  Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

3.  Mix in the flour, salt, and baking powder.  The mixture should be about the consistency of brownie batter. 

4.  Spread the mixture into a greased 9x13 baking pan.

5.  Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the mixture.

6.  Bake at 350 for 5 minutes, or so that the chocolate chips are fully melted.

7.  Take a butter knife and run your knife through the batter and gently "swirl" the chocolate chips and the batter together (see photo below).  Don't worry about this part!  Do your best to create nice swirls, but it will taste awesome no matter how they look.  So if it isn't perfect the first time, you know what they say, practice makes perfect!

8.  Put the now swirly bars back into the oven for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a non chocolatey area (haha this may be hard) comes out clean.  

Spread the batter out so it is even, but don't worry about it too much, as it cooks it will melt into all the cracks!

Be creative with your swirls!  You can even use a "folding" motion to bring up more yummy peanut butter batter from the bottom.

You will hardly be able to wait for these to cool before cut into them!

So next time you have a craving for chocolate and peanut butter, put down the Reeses, grab your apron, and make these happen!  Your loved ones will thank you for it.

p.s.  ♥ jordyn