Happy National Cookie Day..let's celebrate with Chocolate Chunk & Peanut Butter Cookies!

So technically it's not my national cookie day since my nation is England and sadly they don't have fun days dedicated to food like America do but since the majority of my followers are American I'm celebrating for you! 

I made these cookies a few weeks ago.  My husband had some Uni friends over for an afternoon of playstation-ing.  The new COD game had just come out and paired with the arrival of a new big screen TV in our house made for a great way for them to test both out.  

I decided only one thing could make their afternoon any more perfect and that would be baked goods, and I was keen to try out my new giant cookie sheet I'd bought since my kitchen came with the tiniest oven tray known to man.  So I baked up some of these cookies after being inspired by Bakerella's recipe.

Unfortunately, it turns out my new cookie sheet was too good to be true and was clearly designed with American ovens in mind.  No matter what way I turned it around it would not fit in my oven! Fail! 

So I had to resort to the tiny tray meaning I could only bake 6 cookies at a time.  

It was pretty funny though because each time a fresh batch came out the oven I would plate them up and put them in front of the gamers...and they'd have disappeared before the next batch was ready! So it was a continuous stream of freshly baked cookies all afternoon, I had forgotten how much teenage boys can eat! 

I did manage to sneak one to test it out, and these were definitely the best cookies I have made in a very long time.  They had a rich chocolate taste, with just a hint of peanut butter and the addition of chopped up dairy milk chunks of chocolate left oozing pockets of gooey melted chocolate - so tasty! 

Chocolate Chunk & Peanut Butter Cookies:

Makes 24 Cookies

Adapted from Bakerella

185g or 1 1/2 cups plain flour
60g or 1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
113g or 1/2 cup butter, slightly softened
335g or 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
130g or 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
230g or 8 oz. milk chocolate chunks/chips

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

In a small bowl, mix flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt using a wire whisk and set aside.

In a free standing mixer, cream butter and sugar with peanut butter until light and fluffy.

Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add flour mixture into creamed mixture and mix until combined.

Stir in chocolate chunks.

Roll cookie dough into small balls.

Place on a prepared baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

Place them on a cookie rack to cool...but eat them quickly as they are best warm! 

I finally got around to ordering some peanut butter cups from one of my fave American food websites so watch out for some more peanut butter recipes coming your way!