Who doesn’t love peanut butter and chocolate? These classic soft, chewy peanut butter cookies are made with a little twist: chocolate in the middle! You will enjoy every bite. I made these on a break studying for my physiology midterm…last week, this week, and next week is “midterms week” (I know, 3 weeks?! its crazy). In addition, I started a new job so things have been a little crazy lately. How do you balance work/school with cooking? Have a great weekend all <3 Notes: Using Hershey kisses or chocolate bar pieces might work better than adding individual chocolate chips to get one chocolate center-sometimes the chocolate chips might spread when rolling into a ball, making them more like “chocolate chip peanut butter cookies”. If you like your cookies really sweet, don’t be afraid to add a bit more sugar because I used all natural unsalted peanut butter in this recipe and I always like to cut out as much sugar as possible, so they might not be sweet enough for some 😉
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- ⅓ cup peanut butter
- 1 tbsp shortening
- 3 tbsp butter or margarine, softened
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- ¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.
- Cream butter, shortening and sugar together in a standalone mixer or with an electric mixer.
- Add peanut butter and eggs and mix on medium speed until well blended.
- Add flour mixture a little at a time, using spatula to scrape sides while you mix in on low speed.
- When blended, remove dough with floured hands and form into a log. Wrap with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Cut ½ inch cookies from log and place on a baking sheet.
- Place ~6 chocolate chips in the middle of each cookie, and wrap with hands into a ball. Work quickly to keep dough as chilled as possible.
- Bake for 10 minutes, then cool on a wire cooling rack before serving.
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Mmm, my bf lovesss peanut butter AND chocolate, even better when they’re together!
When I was in grad school, I had absolutely NO time for anything except school, and my blog seriously suffered. Only 7 months after graduating am I finally returning to a normal life and trying to blog regularly. So unfortunately, I have no good advice for you 🙁 and I commend you for keeping a balanced life of being in school and blogging (which can be a great distraction and de-stressor in itself!). Keep it up!
OMG! These look so amazing! As you can tell from my name I am a peanut butter freak!! I’m making PB cookies tonight but with a little different twist!! 🙂 Love your blog! Glad we met!
Those look amazing! I already printed off the recipe to try. Thanks for sharing.
These look great… I love how they’ve got a twist to that typical pb cookie… These remind me of a biscuit callled “kookee” (i.e. cookie) that had an amazing biscuit on the outside (similar texture to these ones) and some delicious chocolate on the inside… gosh I miss every bite of those….. Might need to try these and see if they can be taken up as a replacement… 😀
Thanks! Wow those sound really good! These are a little more “crumbly” in texture than a biscuit, but perhaps they will be similar for you 🙂
Just baked a batch-EXCELLENT. Perfect amount of peanut butter flavor, and the texture is just right. Thanks again for a great recipe for my book.
So glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Oh my goodness, what a perfect combo in a cookie…mmmmm!!!!
OMG I love peanut butter and chocolate together. I made some today for my husband and they are already all gone! Like others have said, great combo and addition to this classic recipe. Thanks
Yay so happy you liked them. I love PB & chocolate too, especially frozen yogurt…mmmmm
These look so tasty! I love the sound of the surprise chocolate middle. Good luck for your midterms!!
Thank you! A few more to go… 🙂
I love this idea! I have to try this 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
My kids would love these; peanut butter cookies are their favorite! Please stop over and share some recipes at Mix it up Monday:
http://flourmewithlove.blogspot.com/2012/02/mix-it-up-monday_12.html
I hope to see you soon:)
Thanks so much Lisa 🙂
These are delicious! I’m so glad I found your blog. I grew up close to SF and miss it so much. Your photos are so pretty, too!
Thank you :)!!
I have a question! Since I’m kind of new to this, do you bake them as balls (and eventually they’ll spread out) or do you have to flatten them with the fork first? Thanks! I’m gonna try this soooooon!
I actually have not tried baking them as balls…I use a fork to flatten to give them a pretty design on top. I wonder if they would stay as balls if you don’t flatten first…I would be interested to hear how they turn out without flattening with a fork if you try it that way! I am sure they would still be good, just in a ball shape which might be interesting 🙂 You can also sprinkle some sugar on top to give them some sparkle and extra sweetness!
Hi! It’s me again. Tried making these just now. I made a lot of mistakes but they were still yummy! For one thing, I doubled the amount of ingredients except the peanut butter (I forgot for some unknown reason). I baked the first tray without flattening them and after 7 minutes, they already looked done. In fact they looked really crisp and brown on the top. But I was fooled! :)) The inside was super gooey and kind of cake-like; it even looked exactly like my batter (which was by the way extra greasy for reasons I may never know) So I popped them back in the oven for 3-4 minutes and still the inside was still a little raw. Finally, I placed the cookie sheet on top of the warm oven for another few minutes and they were done! I wouldn’t do it again though, (I mean baking them as balls) it’s hard to know when they’re actually done. But still, yummy and kind of cute if you ask me.They had this dome-like surface that looks crispy but when you actually press them, turns out they’re soft.
The second batch, I made them extra big just so I could fit more chocolate (I used mini kisses; they look like giant chocolate chips! :D) flattened them with the fork, and they turned out just right after 10-12 minutes in the oven. They didn’t turn out as pretty as yours, mine looked sort of look like… bread. .____. That kind of dark brown color; but they were super yummy and I’m gonna try this again! Thanks so much for this. It’s amazing.
Yeah, sorry for ranting. Still excited ’cause I didn’t manage to mess this up :))
Thanks so much for telling me how they turned out for you! I think with most cookie recipes (especially these it seems) you have to do some “trial and error” before figuring out your oven and your taste for when they are “done” or for the ingredients as well. Its interesting how they will always turn out different from person to person, and probably even batch to batch! Keep trying different things and you will find what you like best 🙂 XoXo
Oh my sweet lord! I came across these whilst going through your blog and… I just HAD to try to give them a go. Yes, you were absolutely right about using chocolate chips and chocolate chips spreading – not that I’m complaining HA! But that’s not my point… my main problem was that these dark peanutty babes spread a LOT. I mean yours look chubby and gorgeous; mine were flat-‘er’, thin-‘er’.. And lots of other adjectives which would look much better on me (a girl can dream!) than on my dearly beloved cookies. I THINK, I should not have sifted the flour with the baking powder – not sure. I will definitely omit that step next time, it just comes hard for me not to sift flour since my father was always insisting on ‘airing’ the flour for fluffy dough gibber-gabber… Guess this is another recipe sifting does not apply to 🙂
Many thanks for the recipe and the great attitude towards your academical studies – I wish some of that would rub off me too. Take care xox
Ohh no I’m sorry to hear they went a bit flat on you! I did NOT sift the flour, only because I don’t own a sifter (I know…right?!) Maybe try adding just a bit more flour next time, or chilling them longer/working faster? Not sure 🙁 Hope they still tasted alright =)
These cookies turned out great. Freezing them for the whole hour does make them allot easier to work with. Mine turned out big and fluffy and my husband said they taste great. Thanks!
Thanks so much, I am so happy they turned out well for you 🙂
Absolutely delicious recipe. Thank you so much! I tried it out and just barely underbaked the cookies to keep them nice and soft. Reblogged with photos: http://theflyingone.com/chocolate-peanut-butter-surprise-cookies/
I’ve had this pinned for years but didn’t try until a few months ago. It’s the best soft PB recipe I’ve ever found! I haven’t had any trouble with chocolate chips spreading too much…I used Costco chocolate chips if that matters.