Name: Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients: 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature; 1 cup creamy peanut butter; 1/2 cup granulated white sugar; 1 cup dark brown sugar; 2 large eggs, room temperature; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 2 cups all purpose flour; 1 tsp baking soda; 2 tsp sea salt; 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks; 2 tsp flakey sea salt

The best, salted cookie you will ever eat. These Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies are like heaven in your mouth. Made with creamy peanut butter, loaded with chocolate chunks and sprinkled with flakey sea salt.

You would have to love someone a whole lot to share these Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies with them. They are the kind of thing you make thinking “oh I will make these and save them for that party we are going to next week”… NOPE! You will make them and then search for your best hiding spot so you can keep them all for yourself. At least that is how I feel about them.

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I’ll let you know that I do love Walter that much and I am sharing these with him…. but no one else has gotten their hands on them!

But today, as my Valentine’s Day gift to you, I am sharing the recipe! Now, RUN, do not walk, to the kitchen and make them 🙂

The Sweet and the Salty

Did you know that salt makes sweet things sweeter? No wonder my raging sweet tooth can’t resist a salted dessert. Just like we add salt to nearly every dish to enhance the flavor, the same thing is happening with these cookies. If you are like me, you love sweet and salty things because they light up your taste buds. The extra pinch of salt inside these cookies and the dash of flakey sea salt on top take them to the next level.

Chunks vs. Chips

The chocolate to cookie ratio in a cookie is really important to me. It’s got to be close to 50 or 50 or I’m just not that into it. There is a time and a place for mini chocolate chips, but it’s not here. Extra large chips (think Ghirardelli) or chocolate chunks (my favorite are the Nestle chocolate chunks) are the only way to go for these Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies. It’s like a peanut butter cup, except that it’s a cookie – get it?

Let’s Make Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

You will start by creaming together butter, peanut butter and white and dark brown sugar. I used creamy peanut butter – the processed stuff (think Jif), not natural. Sorry! It just works better in baked goods like this! Next add the eggs and vanilla and mix until fully combined.

Before adding any dry ingredients you will want to sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly add this dry mixture to the wet ingredients, mix until just combined. Finally, fold in the chocolate chunks.

Transfer the mixing bowl to the refrigerator to chill the dough for at least an hour. Refrigerating the dough helps the cookies not spread as much when they bake.

Scoop the dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper and sprinkle each dough ball with flakey sea salt. (I use this 3 tablespoon scoop to make perfectly round, large cookies 🙂 )

Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are golden brown 🙂

To Freeze or Not to Freeze

I am a habitual cookie freezer. In fact, all of the cookies in our house right now are frozen. There are 2 reasons for this. 1. If you freeze them they never go stale, you can keep them frozen and thaw them as wanted. 2. I eat my cookies frozen… anybody else? I love a good frozen cookie, especially if it is loaded with chocolate chunks like these. For me there are 2 ways to enjoy a cookie – either still ooey gooey straight out of the oven or frozen.

Another good use of freezing is to make the dough, scoop it into balls and then freeze the dough balls. Scoop them onto a tray, flash freeze them for about an hour and then put them into a container or a gallon sized ziplock bag. Then you can bake them fresh on demand! If you go with this approach – freezer to oven – make sure you increase the baking time by 2-3 minutes.

Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

Author: Sprinkles & Sea Salt
Yield: 18 cookies 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Ingredients

Scale

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp sea salt

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks

2 tsp flakey sea salt

Instructions

Add the butter to the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with blade attachment

Beat on high until smooth, scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula

Add peanut butter, beat until fully combined, scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula

Slowly add white sugar, mixing

Next add dark brown sugar, mix on high until mixture appears fluffy

Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing in between

Add vanilla, mix

In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and sea salt

Slowly add dry ingredients to mixing bowl, mix until just combined

Fold in chocolate chunks

Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour*

When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F

Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper

Scoop** or roll dough into even sized cookies and place spaced out well on the baking sheets

Sprinkle each cookie with flakey sea salt

Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown

Enjoy warm, cool and freeze or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days

Notes

*You can scoop the dough and freeze it if you prefer, just increase baking time by 2-3 minutes for frozen cookie dough

**I just got this scooper and it is perfect for cookies that are not too big, but not too small

Keywords: #saltedpeanutbuttercookie

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