Lovin' From the Oven

Cherie’s Snickers Peanut Butter Cookies

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I honestly don’t know how people go to work 40 hours a week. We work to live, live to work. It’s a strenuous lifestyle that can also be just as rewarding. For me, I feel like I have to go on a mini vacation every month just to keep from overloading.. and I don’t even consider my job “real” work (since it’s just a part time job)! What am I going to do once I join the work force?! Oh dear. Hopefully I’m lucky enough to do something that I love so it doesn’t feel like work.

I’ll be taking my second mini vacation this week with another trip to Vegas, but this time it’s a girls’ trip with my mom, my aunt (mom’s sister) and her daughter (aka my cousin). We’ll be celebrating my aunt’s and my birthday! I’m counting down the hours… so excited!

I feel like I made these cookies oh-so-long ago. But don’t these cookies just look drool-worthy? After baking these, I confirmed that I don’t like peanut butter cookies. Am I crazy? I love having peanut butter chips and candy in cookies, but I don’t like peanut butter cookies itself. Either way, my DB loved these. The cookies are very moist, almost to the post where they’re crumbly, and have a different kick depending on what type of candy bar you use. I got a grab bag that had the three musketeers, milky way, snickers, and midnight milky way. The recipe is slightly adapted from Amanda’s Cookin’.

Oh, I’ve actually been updating my style blog, A Pile of Style, frequently! Feel free to drop by over there and say hello! 🙂

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 ½ cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 bag mini size candy bars, whatever you prefer
  1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
  2. Cream butter, sugars and peanut butter. Add eggs. Stir or whisk together flour, soda and salt. Add to creamed butter mixture and mix well.
  3. Roll into balls or use a cookie scoop.
  4. Cut the candy bars in half and place them cut side down on top of the rounded cookie and press down gently.
  5. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
  6. Remove from oven and leave cookies on cookie sheet for 2 minutes to rest. Cool on a cooling rack for ten minutes.
  7. Allow to cool completely before eating (if you can wait!).

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Day 1: Peanut Butter Cookies with Milk Chocolate Chunks

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Are you all ready for some serious cookie-mania? I feel like in the food blogging world, December is the prime month for cookies. Everyone loves doing the 12 days of cookies and since I did it last year, I’ll continue my tradition. From now til Christmas, I’ll blog about 12 different types of cookies. That way, you’ll have plenty to choose from when deciding what to bake for your Christmas baskets. 🙂

Day 1 of my 12 days of cookies: This recipe is from Baked. I found it on Food Gal’s blog and had to try it from her mouth-watering pictures. I’ve seen this recipe pop up on a few other websites, and it was always raved about. They were good if you were a peanut butter/chocolate lover. I just found out that I don’t really care for the combination…. and neither does my family/boyfriend’s family. Hmm.. Note to self: Don’t bake peanut butter cookies for a family event.

I found them a bit on the salty side and wish they would have been a bit fluffier instead of so flat. I even made sure to refrigerate mine for at least 3 hours! I would definitely try freezing the dough next time instead of just refrigerating, in hopes of a thicker cookie. Oh well.. they still tasted good! The recipe may seem a little lengthy, but I promise it’s not!

Peanut Butter Cookies with Milk Chocolate Chunks (makes 24 cookies)

  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
  • 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 6 ounces good milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
  1. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars together until fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. The mixture will look light and fluffy. Add vanilla and peanut butter and beat until just incorporated.
  3. Add half of the flour mixture and mix for 15 seconds. Add remaining flour mixture and mix until incorporated.
  4. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, fold in chocolate. Cover bowl tightly and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
  5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  6. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets, at least 2 inches apart. With palm of your hand, very gently press each cookie down so it forms a very tall disk shape. Do not press too hard and do not press it flat.
  7. Sprinkle tops of cookies with granulated sugar and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time, until tops of cookies just begin to brown.
  8. Remove pan from oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer individual cookies to the rack to cook completely (although they are also delicious warm).
  9. The cookies can be stored, in an airtight container, for up to 3 days.

To recap last year’s list of my 12 days of cookies:

Creamy Peanut Butter Cookies

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Now, it’s been a week since my surgery… so that means I can start eating normal food again! Hooray! My sweet tooth has been satisfied for the past week by McDonald’s vanilla ice cream cones. I know what you’re thinking.. “McDonald’s… Really?!” Well, truth of the matter is I go there quite often solely for this reason. The ice cream cones there are hands down my guilty pleasure. They’re dirt cheap and delicious! Plus, the McDonald’s by me is open 24:7.. perfect for that late night craving. I don’t recommend much of anything else from the menu, though.

My weekend officially started as of today since I don’t have any more classes for the week, meaning it was time to bake. Picking my brains on what was okay to bake (judging on what was okay for me to eat), I decided I wanted a soft cookie. It couldn’t have anything too crunchy or hard, as chewing is still a bit of a task for me. It couldn’t have anything too small mixed in, or it would get stuck in my fresh hole-like wounds (sorry for the unattractive picture). Peanut butter cookies it was!

This is the best peanut butter cookie recipe that I’ve used. They’re not too fragile, they can hold their shape once cooled, and are melt-in-your-mouth soft! This makes just over 2 dozen cookies. You can easily double the recipe if you want more, but I was just baking for me and my boyfriend so I didn’t need a million cookies. I used Trader Joe’s organic creamy butter to make these cookies, and they were fabulous! I usually use JIF for my peanut butter, but went for a little change thanks to my healthy eating boyfriend. Yup.. he’s converted me. I’m stuck on Trader’s Joes organic PB from now on (…like how I’m stuck on everything else at Trader Joe’s, LOVE that store!). Feel free to add in some chocolate chips or M&M’s to the recipe if you’d like a little extra kick to your peanut butter cookies.

1 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 medium sized eggs
extra sugar for rolling

  1. Preheat over to 350 degrees.
  2. Beat together the butter, peanut butter, and vanilla extract. Mix in both sugars, salt, and baking powder.
  3. Gradually mix in the flour, half at a time.
  4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
  5. Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls and then roll the balls into sugar. Using a fork, flatten the cookie and make a criss-cross pattern. Bake for 12-13 minutes. Let cookies cool on the cookie sheet after taking them out for about 8 minutes before removing them with a spatula. Cool completely before storing. Enjoy!

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