Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Christmas is just around the corner, and I feel like its passing me by. The past weeks have been so frantic that I didnt realize I was behind with my gift-shopping until its already the Little Bee's start of Chistmas break. I suddenly bolted to reality when I still didnt have gifts for her teachers. And since I vowed to give homemade food-gifts this year, I set out to do the task ahead. So last night, I slept so late making these cookies to make it in time for the Bee's morning class. These cookies are chewy, though a bit greasy for me. I will ease up on butter the next time around. I would have wanted the peanut butter to be a bit more pronounced. But overall, I'm happy with the results - its chewy and crunchy at the same time and I can imagine it's best paired with warm milk just before tucking in for the night. There's something about these cookies that just evokes warmth - could it be the Yuletide season?

Peanut-Butter Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

Freely adapted from MarthaStewart.com

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

6 ounces semisweet chocolate chunks, coarsely chopped (I used Callebaut mini dark chips)

Heat the oven to 350F. In an electric mixer, cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, and mix on medium speed until well-combined. Sift flour and baking soda together, then add to the butter mixture, beatinf just to combine. Fold in chocolate chunks.

Using a spoon, scoop out 1 1/2 ounces of the cookie dough to an ungreased baking sheet. Press down slightly to flatten. Bake until golden brown, 18-20 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Can be stored in an airtight container up to two weeks.

The first batch I made was so lousy coz I placed a big scoopful and didnt leave enough spaces between each cookie. This certain cookie dough can spread too widely in the sheet, so be careful with the spacing. Also, I found that waiting 18-20 minutes resulted in a burned bottom, so I suggest taking it out at 15 minutes instead. The original recipe says it makes 14 cookies, but on double-recipe I easily whipped out some 50 pieces.

I found some tin cans in Christmas colors, which came in handy for the packaging. I sure hope the teachers were happy with it :)