Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Every year my mother hosts a cookie swap.  Each attendee brings 8 dozen homemade cookies and after much food, laughter and hilarity the cookies are swapped!  I have been attending these for years - not that I need the dozens upon dozens of cookies that result from the swap, but cause they are great.

Each year I go through the same process: WHAT DO I MAKE?  I normally bake two different cookies so I need 16 dozen cookies, but what ones?  This year it was determined fairly early on that I would make my oreos but that means I still need another cookie recipe for the swap.  I contemplated the banana oatmeal cookies I made last week, but they aren't as pretty as I would prefer.  Plus this is a cookie swap - no need for lower calorie cookies here!

Well I believe I have found it!  It combines the things I like most - CHOCOLATE and PEANUT BUTTER!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

• 1 1/2 c Flour
• 1/2 c Cocoa
• 3/4 t Baking Soda
• 1/2 Butter or Margarine, softened
• 1 1/2 c Sugar
• 1/2 c Peanut Butter
• 2 Eggs
• 1 t Vanilla
• 3/4 c Chocolate/Peanut Butter Morsels, mixed
• Dash of Salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Grease or parchment your cookie sheets and set aside.
2. Cream together the butter, peanut butter, vanilla and sugar.  Add in the eggs one at a time and mix well.
3. Add the remaining ingredients, save the morsels, and mix well.
4. Finally stir in the morsels.
5. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto your cookie sheets and back until they start to slightly crack.  **The cookies will look gooey still.  They set up once they start to cool.  Be sure to allow them to cool slightly on the cookie sheet before moving to a cooling rack.
6. ENJOY!

Not only are they super yummy but they are easy - a necessity if I am going to make 8 dozen oreos for the swap!  The recipe makes about 48 cookies - if you don't eat too much of the batter :-D.  They aren't exactly the lowest calorie cookie, but with peanut butter in the name a low calorie dessert shouldn't be expected!  The calorie count comes in at about 85 calories per cookie.

Try them out and let me know your thoughts!