Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies

Perhaps it's appropriate that I'm kicking off this blog with some cookies. I have a ravenous sweet tooth--ice cream, cookies, cakes, brownies, unholy combinations of all of the above... I want it all. Unfortunately, I'm poor and so whenever I indulge in treats, I usually try to take care to make sure that they're handmade so that 1) it means more when I DO indulge, and 2) it actually helps me avoid impulse purchases at the store. Which doesn't meant that I am a saint and therefore make NO impulse purchases, but it's a lot harder to blow $5 on cookies when you've only got $10 and have to feed two people for a week.

So anyway, here's some cookies! The recipe was taken from http://jamiescupcakes.blogspot.com/2008/06/peanut-butter-nutella-cookies.html which is a really nice blog with some really ace desserts. I wish I could take credit for coming up with this all by my lonesome, but sadly, I'm still very much a novice baker and as such, I'm just not brave enough to come up with recipes on my own yet. There is still time!

So, without further ado, here's how it works:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup peanut butter (unlike the original cook, I used creamy peanut butter. Obviously, either will do)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Approx. 1/4 cup Nutella (the original recipe says this is optional. I say this is blasphemy! VIVA LA NUTELLA!)

Like all cookie recipes, this is split between two mixtures: wet and dry, with the wet blended first and the dry added in. In this case, the wet ingredients are everything except the flour, salt, baking powder, and Nutella. Just slap it all in a bowl and whip the crap out of it! I suggest using a mixer that is NOT the mixer that I own, which was purchased from QFC for $20 and always feels like it's going to catch on fire if I mix anything denser than pure water.

I don't have a handy-dandy picture of the ingredients. Why? Because I'm lame. I'm sure you know what butter and flour and sugar look like. I'd even venture a guess that you know what peanut butter looks like. Of COURSE you do, or you wouldn't be my friend. Anyway, here's what it looks like as it's first coming together, as you're adding flour to it. Adding flour in three increments is helpful. You don't get flour everywhere and you get it all thoroughly mixed in without any trouble.

And here it is, looking luscious and tempting, pre-Nutella swirling:

And, of course, post-Nutella swirling. This is what love is made of, folks. Note: Nutella, in my experience, doesn't "drizzle" without a whole lot of help. In this case, help came in the form of 20 seconds in the microwave. You don't want to melt it and cause it to separate, but getting it just warm enough so that it flows rather than glops is really helpful for the actual swirling part. Not that Nutella glops aren't wonderful, of course. Nutella in any form is wonderful.

Now, stick that sucker in the fridge and let your dough firm up a bit. This will give you ample time to get your oven preheated to 350 degrees and do some dishes. Well, I did some dishes. What you do is your business.

Once your dough is cooled, roll it into balls and impose your will on them with your fork.

It's important to let all your baked goods know that you are their god and your ineffable will is not to be thwarted. Forks are instrumental for this.

Notice, too, that there is no parchment or pre-greasing on my pan. I don't believe in pre-greasing for cookies. They're 1,000,000 percent butter! No more grease is necessary! Perhaps if you brought your pans with you from the Peloponnesian War and they're made out of equal parts tar and taffy, some greasing is necessary. My pans are new-fangled and non-stick, so I don't do anything other than slap the cookies onto the pan and profit immediately. Why no parchment? I'm lazy, and cookie pan aftermath isn't exactly a whole lot of cleanup.

Now, get those suckers into the oven! I let mine go about 7 minutes, but my oven is kind of inexplicably hardcore. You want to see just a tiny bit of browning along the bottom edges, but don't let them bake any longer than that. Let them cool for a good five minutes or so before trying to transfer them off of the pan. They're peanut butter cookies, so they're pretty soft and crumbly and liable to fall apart on you.

But LOOK at them!

Arrange them in the pattern of your favorite ritualistic cult meeting and enjoy pure deliciousness. Allow your significant other/family member/roommate/faithful hamster to smother you with hugs for making these cookies.

Here's the link to the original recipe again, in case you missed it the first time. Also, her pictures are much more attractive than mine and I want to be sure to give credit where credit is due: http://jamiescupcakes.blogspot.com/2008/06/peanut-butter-nutella-cookies.html

These are TOTALLY milk and cookies type cookies. I can't imagine anything nicer with these than just that! And, like with pretty much any cookie, they're tastiest when they're still warm and slightly soft and ohmigodsodelicious. So give these a try and have a look-see at the original blog from which I pilfered the recipe. It's really quite lovely!