½cupbrown sugar(the original recipe calls for dark, but either will work)
¼cupgranulated sugar
1large egg(at room temperature)
¾cupcreamy peanut butter(although chunky will work if you like the added texture)
1tspvanilla extract
½tspbaking soda
½cupall purpose flour
¾cupwhole wheat pastry flour
Peanut butter chips - a couple handfuls
Semisweet chocolate chips - a couple handfuls
More sugar for finishing(your choice, but a larger grain sugar is fun here, like raw sugar)
Instructions
To start:
Whisk together the dry ingredients.
In your stand mixer, or a bowl with a hand mixer:
Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
Add the egg and vanilla, and beat until the mixture lightens in color, a couple minutes.
Add the peanut butter and beat well, another couple minutes until light and fluffy.
Add dry ingredients in three additions, mixing just enough to incorporate each time.
Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes, and up to overnight.
Shape:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Roll the dough into balls. I used a 1.5 tbsp scoop leveled off to measure, then rolled into balls. Dough balls can also be frozen at this point - see notes.
Optional: roll the dough balls in sugar before putting on the cookie sheet. You can use any type of sugar depending on how large of crystals you'd like.
Optional: press the dough balls with a cookie stamp.
Place the dough balls onto a non-stick cookie sheet. I like to also use a silpat liner for these cookies to ensure the bottoms don't get too brown.
Bake:
Bake @ 350°F until the cookies are just barely cracking on the top.
For the dough balls, bake ~11 minutes.
For the stamped cookies, bake ~9 minutes.
Notes
If freezing cookies as dough balls, roll into balls and then wrap with saran and put in a plastic bag, or seal with a food saver, and freeze.To bake these frozen dough balls, pull directly from the freezer and add 2-3 minutes to the baking time. This is a great way to have fresh-baked cookies at the ready any time!