Peanut Butter Cookies

I love a good peanut butter cookie, and I've been searching for the right recipe for me.  I love Central Market's PB cookie!  To me, it embodies what a perfect PB cookie should be: crispy on the edge, soft and chewy in the middle, crunchy peanuts, full of PB flavor, but with enough flour to make it a cookie.  I don't want a flourless PB cookie.   So I've tried a few PB cookie recipes, and while they were good, they weren't perfection.

This PB cookie recipe is near perfection, but it's pretty close to what a CM PB cookie is.  I would love a CM PB cookie recipe, if anyone knows and cares to share.  Please.

3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
1 cup peanut butter (I used Crunchy Jif PB)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups peanut butter chips

Heat oven to 350F.
Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
Beat sugars and butter together until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each, until smooth.
Add peanut butter and vanilla; beat until smooth.
Add flour mixture, beat until combine.
Fold in the peanut butter chips.

Bake for about 12 minutes.  Actually I baked for about 15 minutes at 325F convection, but I think my cookies were a bit more done than I'd like.  The edges were very good, but the middle were not soft and chewy.  However, I think the cookies were underdone at 12 minutes.   I portioned the cookies using the 1-Tablespoon scoop.  I will make bigger cookies next time, and keep baking time at 15 minutes.

Also the original recipe didn't call for the peanut butter chips, but I know CM PB cookies have the chips as one of the ingredients, so I added the chips.  I think it made a world of difference to these cookies.

However, one of my picky friends didn't rave for the cookies.  But he didn't like the CM PB cookies either.  I just think he doesn't have the sophistication to appreciate a good cookie when he stumbles upon one.  :)