one bite cookie

Aren't these cute? Doesn't the thought of peanut butter and chocolate - salty and sweet just make your mouth water?! These pretty little treats were brought to my attention when I was cyber surfing and discovered (thanks to a hint from Joy the Baker) 17 and Baking... an absolutely beautiful, fun and fresh blog. Elissa (the blogger) is super enthusiastic about baking... which makes me super enthusiastic about trying out her recipes.

Tiny Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Buttons - the name alone (and accompanying pictures) made me want to roll up my sleeves, pull out my stand mixer and get baking. I did change it up a little bit from Elissa's recommendation... I didn't make 15 dozen 1/4 tsp sized cookies... I made 9 dozen 1 tsp sized cookies. You get more peanut butter to chocolate ratio - but I'm ok with that. As my friend Audrey said - it's almost like eating chips - you can sit with a little bowl of them in front of you and just pop them in your mouth... without even realizing that the bowl is almost empty!

Next time I have helpers in the kitchen though, I'll get right on baking 15 dozen cookies :0) I'll leave it up to you whether you decide to make them tiny buttons or only mini cookies... salty/sweet goodness either way!

Mini Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
ingredients:
3/4 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. salted butter, room temperature
1/3 c. white sugar
1/3 c. light brown sugar
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (I used vanilla salt)
White sugar for rolling
Chocolate chips (any type)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the peanut butter and butter together. Add the two sugars and continue to beat until it lightens up (about 1 minute). Add the egg, milk, and the vanilla and beat until fluffy.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt together. Beat the dry ingredients in 3 additions to the peanut butter mixture.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to chill for at least 10 minutes in the fridge - it makes it easier to work with.

Now, at this point it was recommended that I use a 1/4 tsp and roll the dough into 1/2 inch balls. I choose to change things up a bit... so I grabbed my 1 tsp and rolled the dough into slightly bigger than 1 inch balls.

Roll each ball in the white sugar (rolling sugar) and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. They don't spread while baking, but try not to bake too many at once (2 dozen max) since you need to work fast to top each baked cookie with a chocolate chip.

Bake for 8 minutes (if making the tiny buttons bake for 5 minutes).

Remove from the oven,IMMEDIATELY press a chocolate chip into the centre of each cookie. Leave the cookies for a minute, then remove from the sheet and cool completely on a wire rack.

Elissa says that the cookies will last several days in an airtight container at room temperature... I don't know if that is true or not. They are all gone. Two batches of them. I think that is a sign of a good cookie. Don't you?!