Peanut Butter Puddles… Recipe!

Peanut Butter Puddles

…because it is definitely baking season again!

Here’s an old cookie recipe for Peanut Butter Puddles that a friend of Benji’s came up with several years ago. It has made the cut several times in the personal cook book and moving-across-country adventures, so we decided we should share it with you! The thumb-print aspect and puddles add some fun tasks for little hands to help as well –  Enjoy firing up that oven and staying warm…

Dry Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients:

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup chocolate chips (yep, again!)
1/3 cup peanut butter +/-

Directions:
-Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter (from wet ingredient list) together slowly in sauce pan or double boiler.
-Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl
-Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl and add this mixture to your slightly cooled off melted PB/Chocolate chip mixture.
-Place wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until just combined into a nice cookie dough.
-Drop by Tablespoon size and leave a thumbprint in the middle of each dough ball to form a small pool…
-Put a dab of extra peanut butter (you choose how much!) in each thumbprint and bake for 12 minutes (or less) at 350F degrees.

Notes:
You can use creamy or chunky peanut butter of just about any kind – to make these super over the top, try the “grind your own” bulk peanut butter from the Oneota Food Coop (or another food coop!). Smucker’s natural is also a decent option, or of course whatever you have on hand! Feel free to experiment with amounts or add your own spices for the holidays (cinnamon? peppermint pieces? Whoohoo!)