To the lovers of all things peanut butter: this flourless peanut butter cookie is for you. Pillowy soft, lightly sweet, full of big peanut butter taste and, bonus, easy to bake! I use this recipe quite often when I feel like eating a cookie but I don’t feel like spending a lot of time baking. It never disappoints!

The beginning of June is one of my favorite times of year. The summer’s stretched out before us, and I’m rooting for nothing but fun. I’m just not sure what that fun is yet. 

It’s been a week since I returned from a big trip that I looked forward to six months. All year I’ve been gearing up for my vacation, and I didn’t think much about what I would do with the send half of my year. 

Returning from vacation always feels a bit melancholy to me, so one thing I liked about a May vacation was leaving when it was spring and coming back to summer! (Not officially, of course, but close enough.)

A question I heard a lot while I was meeting new people was, “What do you do?” And I always asked back, “Like, for my work, or for my life?” Work. People always wanted to know about work. I’ll tell you – answering that question was the only time over nearly two weeks that I thought about work. 

I’m incredibly grateful for my work. I want to keep doing my work. But there’s so much more beyond it that answering that question seemed like letting people in to only 10% of who I am. Just a sliver of what’s actually me.

I started this blog eight years ago now. At the time, there was nothing else I’d rather be doing. Now, there many things I’d rather be doing. Reading, hiking, cross stitching, biking, painting, swimming, baking, and repeat. Nothing to it than my own personal fun, but what a luxury to have a list like that.

Perhaps I should have adding blogging to that list.

My space here is not as important to me as it once was, but it’s still a hobby I enjoy coming back to from time to time. I hope you find the same. When you’re in the mood for a new recipe, stop by and see if anything here suits you. All the other times…

Splash around at the pool. Drink lemonade on a patio. Chase fireflies across the yard. Spend an afternoon at a baseball game. Check things off your summer bucket list. The next thing we know, it will be September. Did someone say pumpkin?

Enjoy!

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Yield: 12 cookies

Pillowy soft, lightly sweet, and full of big peanut butter taste, this yummy cookie is also easy to make.

Print

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, beat the peanut butter, brown sugar, baking soda and salt together until combined.
2. Gently beat in the egg and vanilla until just incorporated.
3. Stir the in mini chocolate chips.
4. Scoop rounded tablespoons of the dough about 2 inches apart onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. The cookies should be slightly darker around the edges and look a bit undercooked when you take them out of the oven.
6. Allows the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Notes

A peanut butter like traditional Jif or Skippy works best for this recipe (as opposed to a no-ingredients added peanut butter).

The cookies are very fragile when first removed from the oven, so be sure to let them cool (and set up) on the baking sheet for the full 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack.

This cookie dough as well as the baked cookies freeze beautifully. If freezing the dough, scoop the cookie dough into balls, place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and place in the freezer until frozen. Transfer the frozen cookie dough balls to a resealable bag or an air-tight container. When taking the frozen cookie dough from the freezer to the oven, add a minute or two to the baking time.

If freezing the baked cookies, simply store in a resealable bag or layer in an air-tight container, adding parchment paper between the layers. Allow to defrost for about an hour before serving.

The original recipe as written by Nigella has a yield of 16 cookies, although I've never baked more than 13 cookies from a batch of this cookie dough. Be prepared for a little variation in the yield, but know you'll get at least a dozen cookies if using a tablespoon to scoop the dough.

Recipe from Simply Nigella by Nigella Lawson.