Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Cookies
Peanut butter and chocolate belong together. They are soul mates. Their love infects those around them, infusing happiness wherever they go. And let me say that we need a little happiness. Winters in Canada are always long. Add a pandemic and a lock down and the sunniest personalities are tested.
These cookies happen to be gluten free, they are pretty to look at and 100% ensured to turn a crappy, dead-of-winter-will-this-pandemic-ever-be-over, how-is-it-only Monday slump. Leftovers (should there be any) can be frozen as an insurance against future despondence.
Chocolate cookies are notoriously easy to over-cook, as it is difficult to see the colour of the bottom. Take them out of the oven as soon as they look firm and puffed up. Err on the side of slightly under-cooked.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Cookies
NYT Cooking
Makes about 2 dozen cookies
1 (16 oz or 455 g) jar of smooth peanut butter (not natural)
2 cups (400g) granulated sugar, plus more for assembling
3 large eggs
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup (85 g) chopped bittersweet chocolate
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
Heat the oven to 350F. Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the peanut butter and sugar on medium until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and beat on medium until combined. Transfer half the dough to a bowl or a clean work surface.
Add the chocolate, cocoa powder and salt to the remaining dough in the bowl of the electric mixer and beat on medium until combined.
Portion each dough into 1 Tbsp scoops. Squeeze together one scoop of peanut butter dough and one scoop of chocolate dough and roll into a neat ball (I used a No. cookie scooper, and scooped half of each). Transfer the balls to the prepared cookie sheets, at least 1 inch apart. Using the flat bottom of a glass dipped in granulated sugar, press each ball into a flat circle that is 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. (After pressing the first cookie the glass will be greasy enough for the sugar to adhere to it).
Bake the cookies until set and slightly puffed, 11- 14 minutes (see note), rotating the sheets halfway through baking. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool completely.