budgetbonviveur

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I would bake for this blog post. I had every intention of making something that was light and had fresh fruit — a guilt-free something that anyone who’s  from the #paleo school of thought could enjoy.

Who am I kidding? Paleo? ME? Truth of the matter is I knew within minutes of regaining consciousness this morning that I wanted something with peanut butter and chocolate. So at 7:30 this morning, before even brushing my teeth, I came downstairs and started measuring out sugar, butter and peanut butter.

And here’s the result.

Sometimes you just have to shut out all the problems of the world and bake. Bake something that could give you diabetes if consumed regularly.  You have to skip the gym, skip your Chobani and blueberries and eat one twelve of these decadent cookies for breakfast.

That’s what I told myself this morning… it’s what I’m sticking to, and damn do I feel good about it.

Full disclosure — this shot has been glammed-out on Photoshop. I lah-lah-love it.

Difficulty: Easy
Total recipe cost: $5.30
Servings: Yields 20 cookies, 10 sandwiches
Cost per serving: $0.53/sandwich
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Note on salt: It’s best to use unsalted peanut butter and unsalted butter, so the amount of salt you’re adding is more precise and you don’t overdo it.

For the cookies:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the butter, which should be room temperature, on high speed for about 2 minutes or until butter is fluffy. Add brown sugar, beating for an additional 2 minutes. Add peanut butter and egg.

In a small bowl, whisk dry ingredients together – flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Gradually add dry ingredients into wet ingredients.

Make dough into a ball and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Note: The longer you refrigerate it, the more body the cookie will have. I refrigerated mine for an hour to yield a flatter cookie, but if you want a thicker cookie, refrigerate it for longer.

Roll the cookies into 2-inch balls that are about the same size and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Note:It’s important that the balls are the same size for when you put them together as sandwiches.

For the filling:

Mix butter, peanut butter, sugar, milk and dash of vanilla extract on high for 5 minutes or until mixture is smooth and there are no longer chunks of butter. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes. Spread on the bottoms of cookies after they’re completely cooled.

Melt chocolate in double broiler and spoon onto cookie. When melting chocolate, it might be helpful to add a tablespoon or two of butter to make it easier to spread. Add crushed pretzels to wet chocolate and refrigerate cookies.