Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread

I've been holding out on you. It's time to make amends. (And these cookies.)

I feel like I’ve been holding out on you—letting you down, even.

I have spent over three years here sharing recipes and I have never shared my peanut butter chocolate chip shortbread cookies with you. This cookie is the most elegant peanut butter cookie you’ll find. It’s delicate, melt-in-your-mouth and very, very more-ish.

And, I’m humbled to say even the true Queen of Baked Goods, Rose Levy Beranbaum liked them so much, she featured them in her latest cookbook, The Cookie Bible.

(If you’d be so kind, would you please click the “like” button above, for the sake of SEO everywhere?)

I can think of no better cookie that deserves the honor of first cookie recipe of the year.

These are great for other reasons, too. Once you’ve rolled the dough into logs, you can refrigerate them for 5 days before slicing and baking. You can also keep a few logs in the freezer. Slice from frozen and bake as you would normally (although it may take a minute or two longer to bake). For those not paying attention in the back, this means you can have cookies squirreled away in your freezer for whenever the need arises.

Prep note:

Room temperature butter matters. By which I mean, in order to get your butter to room temperature, your room better not feel as if it were a training capsule for Antarctic explorers. Which, living with a British husband, mine often does.

That said: Room temperature is considered 65 degrees F. The butter should be cool to the touch, but not warm. If you poke it, your finger will leave an indent, but won’t slide. This is a good rule to remember in general.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

What You’ll Need:

• 2 sticks (8 ounces) butter, at room temperature

• 2/3 cup (192 grams) creamy peanut butter (I used Skippy All-Natural)

• 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

• 2 1/2 cups (345 grams) all-purpose flour (I used Gold Medal blue label)

• 1/2 cup (50 grams) confectioner’s sugar

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips ( You can also chunk up a bar of chocolate. I also sometimes use a mix of milk and semi-sweet)

What To Do:

1. Using a stand mixer, cream the butter and peanut butter together until you can’t tell them apart. Add the vanilla until just blended.

2. Meanwhile, whisk together the dry ingredients and add it to the butter mixture. Mix until the dough begins to come together–it will still be crumbly. Add the chocolate chips and blend. The dough will still be loose.

3. Dump the dough onto a large piece of wax or parchment paper and bring it together with your hands. When it starts to become a uniform dough, divide the dough into four pieces. Shape each piece into logs.. Roll each log up in wax or parchment paper. You can make it into a cylinder, or gently press down on the log to form a flat side and repeat that 4 times to make a square-shaped log. Place the dough into the refrigerator to rest for 2-3 hours.

4. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, and line two baking sheets with parchment.

5. Unwrap the dough and, using a sharp knife, slice the dough into 1/3-inch pieces and transfer to the cookie sheet.

6. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the dough just begins to take on the faintest bit of color. Too brown and they lose their crumbliness. They will still taste good, though. Cool on a rack, then grab one or two to taste and immediately get in the car and drive far away so you do not eat them all.

How are you all feeling now that it’s February? Was January longer than usual this year, or was that just a Jersey feeling as we haven’t seen the sun in weeks? Does Bosco sum up our collective feelings? Does Bosco know how nicely the red pillow sets off his black fur?

As a child of mine used to say, more soonly.

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The pay scale for journalists and writers has not kept up with the cost of living. That’s why having a substack newsletter has become such a terrific venue for so many writers. Best of all, it puts me, Bosco, Calvin and Clyde in touch with our readers like never before. And: Clyde would like to add, it keeps him in cat treats. He is obsessed with these little Temptations savory salmon flavor crunchies.

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