if you give a mouse a cookie... (white chocolate peanut butter cookie recipe)

More like, if I make a batch of cookies, I will eat half of them warm from the oven. And the other half the next day. With a tall glass of milk. And feel totally sick and happy at the same time.

What, that's not what you do?

But really, making cookies is dangerous business for me. They are so good warm from the oven (is there any cookie that gets better with age? I think not). It is hard not to have just one more. And these babies are no exception.

I whipped these up spur-of-the-moment on our last Friday movie night, where we watch a movie as a family while eating dinner off of TV and high chair trays. I used my good old Betty Crocker recipe, subbing butter for shortening (because why not?). At the last minute I threw in some white chocolate chips (originally purchased for chocolate popcorn, but which didn't melt very well*), and the resulting cookies did not disappoint.

So without further ado...

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

ingredients;

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used natural without any problems)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup white chocolate chips

directions:

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix butter, peanut butter, sugars, and egg until thoroughly blended. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Mix in white chocolate chips.

(At this point the original recipe says to cover and refrigerate. I'm too impatient for that.)

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. I like to use a scoop for this. Arrange 12 dough balls to a cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper or silicon baking mat, and press dough down with a fork. Betty suggest using a criss-cross pattern, but I just did a single-motion press. Put baking sheet in the freezer for as long as you can stand (a few minutes). Then bake. Betty suggests 10 to 12 minutes. Mine baked to perfection in 8. Check yours at 8 and go from there. Perfect cookies should be slightly golden around the edges.

Move baked cookies to a cooling rack and don't wait too long before sampling. I'm telling you, they are heavenly!


*I've found that the "nice" brands of white chocolate chips do not melt well, but seize up and get all weird. Toll House white chips melt perfectly, just FYI. Ghirardelli, not so much. So take note.