Best. Cookies. Ever.

My family has a certain go-to cookie recipe. It's been changed at will over the years and has finally arrived at a sort-of complete recipe. I absolutely love these cookies....they stay soft, instead of getting all hard and crunchy. I was feeling ambitious last night, so I attempted to take pics throughout the process. There were a few more pics, but Photoshop ate them, honest. It's totally the program's fault, not the user! Anyway, here you go. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, as reinvented by my family.

Ingredients:
1 c butter/margarine, softened (can be half butter flavored Crisco, if you like)
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar, packed
1 c peanut butter (preferably Jif)
1 large egg (or 2 smaller ones)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 to 3 c flour (might need to adjust)
1 bag milk chocolate chips
1/2 bag peanut butter chips

Ok let's get started. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Combine the butter/margarine, sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, and egg(s) in your mixer.



Cream these ingredients together until well blended. It will look like this.



In a large bowl, mix together the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and flour. I would start with 2 1/2 c flour and go from there. Slowly add the dry mixture into the creamed mixture until it looks like this.



This should be a pretty stiff dough. You will probably need to add extra flour. I usually use around 3 cups. At this time I usually take a teeny bit of dough and make a "test cookie". Of course I stuff a few chocolate chips in, 'cause I'm no dummy. You may need to mash this dough down a little, it is not supposed to melt down like other, crispier cookies. Here's my test cookie.



Adjust your flour content as necessary after eating your test cookie. Add in the chocolate and peanut butter chips. I like to use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out balls of dough, then flatten them with a fork. Or my hands if the fork mysteriously disappears. In this pan I have flattened half of them so you can see how they look.



Cook only until very slightly golden on the bottom. Take them out and let them sit on the pan for a few minutes. They will continue to cook on the pan, I promise! This recipe should make quite a few cookies, I usually get at least 3 dozen out of it. If I'm feeling super spunky I'll add in mini M&M's.