Peanut Butter Cookies

It seems as though it's been quite some time since I've actually posted something about baking, so I'm getting back to the heart of this blog today.

I made these cookies on a stormy Friday night. There was no real reason I chose these cookies, mostly because I realized I had all of the ingredients when I was perusing recipes in my new Pie in the Sky cookbook. I modified the recipe slightly in that I didn't do the sugar coating or criss cross portions of the recipe.

Because I'm lazy.

And because wine.

One thing you may or may not have noticed is that a lot of times I seem to be out of something and have to
run to the store. Usually for eggs. I have no idea why it's usually the eggs. This comes from me assuming that I have the basics and because I tend to quickly look at a recipe just to make sure I have all the ingredients. Which is usually fine. But not this time because the recipe called for the egg (which I did have!) to be "room temperature."  So, I may or may not have attempted to warm up the egg in my cleavage.

Because wine.

I tried to pass these off to my coworkers as "healthy" because they have peanut butter in them and peanut butter has protein. Although I'm pretty sure they would have eaten them regardless.

The bulk of these cookies went to my friend for her Birthday (who said they were "baller")...of which we missed the festivities.

Because beer.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chunky peanut butter

Preheat oven to 375.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. In a mixer, blend together butter and sugars until smooth. Mix in egg, vanilla and peanut butter. Slowly mix in the flour mixture a little at a time until everything is completely blended. Drop cookies, about an inch around, onto an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies from the cookie sheet immediately and place on a cooling rack or wax paper.

Chocolate Chip Potato Chip Cookies

There was a gathering at my husband's workplace last night and I wanted to bring something to the event. I asked my husband for some inspiration and without skipping a beat he tells me a story about how one day he and his former roommate ate raw cookie dough and potato chips and how amazing the combination was. At first I thought he was suggesting I serve raw cookie dough and I was like, "Yeah...no, I'm not comfortable with that" but then I realized he just thought I should put potato chips into chocolate chip cookies. And this I could totally get behind because I love salty and sweet combinations.

I did a quick search on the Googles and realized that this was actually a thing and there were quite a few recipes out there (none for high altitude, of course). Many of the recipes called for potato chips and pretzels, but I decided to just add potato chips.

Rather than mess with a good thing, I used the standard drop cookie recipe from my High Altitude Baking book that I've used for my Caramel Bacon White Chocolate Chip Cookies and my Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Per my usual, there was no way that my baking experience was going to be flawless. This time, when I grabbed the brown sugar, I realized it had gotten hard.

Luckily, this was an easy fix. I put the brown sugar in a bowl and popped it into the microwave for 10 seconds and it softened enough for me to measure it. Once it was creamed with the sugar and shortening it was like there was never even an issue in the first place.

There was one more moment of panic when my guinea pig/husband did the taste test. He stood there for a few moments with the strangest and (and from what I perceived) non-positive expression on his face. I thought, "Oh no! They are terrible!" but it turns out they weren't and then he proceeded to eat 10 more.

Chocolate Chip Potato Chip Cookies

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup shortening

2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups crushed potato chips

Preheat oven to 375.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder. In a large bowl, cream sugars and shortening. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add flour mixture slowly and thoroughly, a little at a time. Stir in chocolate chips and potato chips. Drop cookies, about an inch around, onto an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies from the cookie sheet immediately and place on a cooling rack or wax paper.