forever soft and chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

Let me start by saying I didn’t have high hopes for these cookies originally, but they sounded just interesting enough to try. I had pulled a recipe off Pinterest and wasn’t too impressed with how the first batch came out. But after eating a couple of the “just ok” cookies, something deep down inside me felt that these cookies had serious potential—don’t give up! So I made another batch, but made some changes to the recipe…and they came out delicious and perfect. The best peanut butter chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever tried. 

Mmmm I’m craving some right now! 

The best part about these cookies? Only ¼ cup flour, no butter, no white sugar, and completely delicious! So when you’re munching away on the whole batch, don’t feel quite as guilty because, hey, they aren’t that bad for you! 

Anyway, enough with the chitchat, let’s get this recipe started! 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup creamy peanut butter (Jif is best) 
1 cup light brown sugar, packed 
1 large egg 
1 tablespoon vanilla extract 
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda 
¼ cup flour (regular or gluten-free)
1 teaspoon honey 
6 ounces chocolate chips 

Directions 
In a mixing bowl, combine peanut butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, honey, and beat on medium-high speed until the mixture is no longer gritty or granular, about 7 minutes. Don't shortcut the creaming step.  

Add the baking soda and flour and beat to incorporate. Add the chocolate chips and mix just until combined. 

Place a sheet of parchment paper on your cookie sheet and form and drop your cookies. If chocolate is falling out of dough, add a bit more dough by hand and work it in to secure the chocolate. 

Now this is the strange part, but I promise it's worth doing. For me, my cookie mounds are often oily because of the natural oil found in the peanut butter. I was thinking about trying low-fat peanut butter...but when I looked on the side of the container in the store, the first ingredient wasn't peanut butter! Weird huh? So I figured I'd just stick to regular peanut butter and the method I'm about to tell you. If your dough mounds are oily, use a paper towel and gently wrap each mound to absorb the excess oil. It'll also help them get nice and round. You'll probably go through a couple paper towels, but you'll be left with a lot less oily cookie mounds that bake much better. 

Now, place your cookie sheet of dough into the fridge and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before baking. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter. 

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F and bake for 8 minutes, or until edges are set and tops are barely set, turning the tray halfway through. Do not over-bake or your cookies will be hard.

When done, allow cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 to 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling. 

And that’s it. You’re only a couple hours away from some of the best cookies ever, so hop to it!