Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies

These are my go to store cupboard cookies and I found the recipe for these Peanut Butter Cookies in Jo Wheatley’s A Passion for Baking. The trick to getting the perfect texture seems to be a swift bang on the worktop half way through the cooking time. These cookies are fabulously crisp and chewy…the holy grail of cookies and with the addition of Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips are elevated to dream cookie levels in my opinion.

Unfortunately, the chips are not easy to find in the UK and I was lucky that I had a friend visiting Chicago at the end of last year so she bought me a few bags back. I have heard Selfridges, Panzers and Partridges stock a good range of Reece’s stuff though the recipe works just as well with milk or white chocolate chips or peanuts.

Makes 10-12
Ingredients
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
60g demerara sugar
60g caster sugar
1 large egg, beaten
100g spelt or plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
60g Reese’s peanut butter chips, salted peanuts or chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180c or gas mark 4 and line 2-3 large baking sheets with baking parchment.

Cream the butter, peanut butter, demerara and caster sugar in a free standing mixer or with a hand mixer until pale and fluffy.

Add the beaten egg gradually and mix until well combined.

Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into the bowl and stir until smooth and the dough comes together. Add the Reese’s chips, peanuts or chocolate chips and mix into the dough.

Spoon the dough onto the prepared baking sheets spaced well apart as they spread to around 8-10 cm once cooked. bake in batches on the middle shelf for 5 minutes then remove from the oven breifly to give the tray a sharp bang on the worktop to deflate the cookies. Return to the oven for a further 5 minutes until golden brown.

Cool slightly before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.