Fast Recipes

A cheat's recipe for choc-chip peanut butter cookies

These speedy cookies are a cinch to put together, thanks to the power of peanut butter. Here's the hack.

By Emma Knowles
  • 10 mins preparation
  • 15 mins cooking plus cooling
  • Serves 12
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In this choc-chip cookie recipe, there's no melting or creaming of butter; in fact, there's no butter at all. Instead, it's the peanut butter that gives these beauties their gorgeous flavour and chewy texture. They're a perfect salty-sweet treat on their own, but also make for an excellent ice-cream sandwich. You just need to let them cool – if you can wait that long.

Ingredients

  • 250 gm peanut butter
  • 100 gm brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 75 gm (½ cup) plain flour
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 50 gm salted roasted peanuts, plus extra for scattering
  • 50 gm dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), coarsely chopped, plus extra for scattering
  • 30 gm cacao nibs
  • Vanilla ice-cream (optional), to serve

Method

  • 1
    Preheat oven to 200°C and line several oven trays with baking paper. Mix together peanut butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a bowl, stir in flour and baking powder until smooth, then stir in peanuts, chocolate, cacao nibs and ½ tsp sea salt.
  • 2
    Place heaped tablespoonfuls of dough onto prepared trays, leaving a few centimetres between each, and scatter with extra peanuts, chocolate and a little extra salt. Bake, swapping and turning trays partway through cooking, until golden and firm (12-15 minutes). Cool briefly on trays, then cool completely on wire racks. Serve as they are or as ice-cream sandwiches. Cookies keep in an airtight container for a week.