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By Sarah Condley

Columnist

The youth at our church come together on Wednesdays after school to hang out, do homework, and have fun. Each week I try and take something sweet so those hungry teens will have a little snack. This particular week I was trying to decide what to make when I looked in my baking drawer and saw a partially used bag of Reese’s peanut butter chips that needed to be used up. The Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies recipe was on the back of the bag, and I figured that would be the perfect snack.

To get started, I set the butter on the counter to soften it and left it there while I did other stuff around the house.

Once the butter was soft, I was ready to get started baking. I turned on the oven to preheat and then started putting the dry ingredients together, which was quick and easy. I put the softened butter in a bowl, added the sugar and used my hand-held mixer to combine until light and fluffy. I cracked an egg into a small bowl; if I got the shell in the white, I could remove it quickly, then added the egg to the butter/sugar mixture. After pouring some homemade vanilla that my grandson made me for Christmas (it smells so good) into the batter, I turned on the mixer and mixed just until combined. Next came adding the dry ingredients, adding one half at a time and using the mixer to combine.

Since I’d used some of the peanut butter chips when I made something else and only had a partial bag, I made up the difference with chocolate chips and folded the chips into the chocolate batter.

I filled a cookie sheet pan with 12 dough balls and put the pan into the oven for eight minutes. I took the cookies out and they didn’t seem set to me, so I placed them back into the oven to bake one more minute.

While the fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies cooled on the pan I put another pan full into the oven.

I started the process once again after the first batch was cool enough to move to a wire rack. The recipe was absolutely correct when it said it would make four 1/2 dozen cookies.

Because these cookies weren’t for us, and because I don’t like chocolate, I had Brad try just one to see how they turned out. He said they were really good and he like the fact that they were soft and not crunchy.

Even though I didn’t get any feedback from the teenagers at church, I’m calling this a Nailed It cookie recipe, and I’m adding it to my self-made cookbook.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 6 tablespoons Hershey’s cocoa

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened

• 1 cup sugar

1 egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 2/3 ounces (10 oz pkg) Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips

Instructions

• Heat oven to 350 degrees.

• Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with mixer until well blended.  Add egg and vanilla; beat well.  Gradually add flour mixture, beating well.  Stir in peanut butter chips.  Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheet.

• Bake 8 to 9 minutes (do not over bake – cookies will be soft).  Cool slightly, remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.  Cool completely.  Makes about 4 1/2 dozen cookies.