Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

These are my absolute favourite cookies ever! I love peanut butter chocolate everything and these cookies are perfection – oversized, soft, moist, chunky and ridiculously delicious. The recipe is from Curtis Stone’s (who is equally delicious!) cookbook “Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone” which is a terrific cookbook, and worth this recipe alone! The recipe is also posted online via his website: http://curtisstone.com/recipes/desserts/peanut-butter-cookies-with-chocolate-chunks.aspx

I have made this recipe many times and I have a few suggestions thanks to products I have found that have resulted in perfect cookies every time!

Ingredients (Makes about 20 cookies):

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup natural chunky peanut butter (*I use PC Blue Menu Just Peanuts Crunchy Peanut Butter)
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar (packed)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks (*I use PC The Decadent Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks) . . . or you can coarsely chop 5 oz of semisweet chocolate. Both methods work equally well.

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with a silpat or parchment paper
2. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl with a whisk.
3. Using an electric mixer beat the peanut butter, brown sugar, sugar, butter, honey, egg and vanilla until well blended.
4. Stir in the dry ingredients until incorporated into the peanut butter mixture.
5. Mix in the chocolate chunks.
6. Scoop about 3 tablespoonfuls of dough for each cookie onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart. (*I use an OXO Good Grips Large #20 Cookie Scoop – a 3 Tbsp scoop). I then use the palm of my hand to flatten the tops of the cookies slightly for even baking.
7. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the cookies puff and begin to brown on top but are still very soft to the touch.
8. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes.
9. Using a spatula transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely or dig into a warm freshly baked cookie with a big glass of milk!