Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies and The Night Time Baker!

Coming home from school was my favorite part of the day. Mom was always home, as soon as I opened the door I knew just what she had been doing. More often than not wonderful smells hit me. Chocolate cake, cookies, fresh bread, cinnamon rolls and maybe in winter a pot of beef stew. School cares were left at the door as we ate a home baked treat and chatted about our day.
I do think the power of smells is magical.

We had been married about 13 years, we had 6 small children and hubby was the mayor of our very small but rapidly growing town. He had meetings every week--oft times the meetings would get heated, tempers flared. My mild mannered hubby put up with this surprisingly well. I wanted home to be a place of love and happiness--and good smells! Hubby's meetings often went till late at night. I think that is when I became the "night time baker". I remembered my childhood and how troubles seemed to melt away at the smell of good food. So I put it to the test. Luckily my kids had early bedtimes. Once they were asleep the kitchen came to life. I would make brownies one night, cookies another and occasionally sweet rolls with caramel frosting.
Hubby opened the door from his harried meetings and a waft of delicious smells greeted him. I'm not saying all his problems disappeared but a waft of deliciousness met him at the door.

This tradition continued through another 5 years as he served as the Bishop of our church congregation. Starting a batch of brownies at 10 PM is normal at my house. Then breakfast is taken care of too!
Why this ramble down memory lane? Hubby spent a week in Alaska, he didn't get home till 10 PM. I started these yummy Peanut Butter Chocolate cookies at 9. He opened the door to hugs, kisses and a waft of sweetness. That is a good thing! And these are one delicious cookie. Very soft--don't be tempted to over bake. The drizzle of chocolate is the perfect finish. These would be yummy any time of the day or night!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
1 1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cube butter (4 ounces)
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla

In a small bowl whisk together the flour. baking soda and salt.
In your mixer put softened butter, peanut butter and sugars. Mix about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Gently stir in the flour mixture. Please don't over mix. Bake at 350 degrees on parchment lined stoneware. Did you know you can get huge rolls of parchment paper at Costco. It's by the plastic wrap and foil. I do love my big roll of parchment paper!
I use my small Pampered Chef Scoop for these little gems. I did flatten them slightly before cooking. Bake for 9-11 minutes. My cookies needed the 11 minutes. Cool cookies for a few minutes on the sheet pan--they have to set up. When they can be safely moved to a cooling rack you are ready to pop them in the freezer for a few minutes. I'm usually in a hurry and the freezer is my friend! This batch makes about 3 dozen smallish cookies.

For the drizzle put 1/3 cup milk chocolate chips and 1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips in a heavy duty zip lock baggie. Add a heaping teaspoon of Crisco. Seal the bag and melt in microwave. My micro wave has a setting for melting chocolate--I love it. Without a setting just melt it at 50% power and stir every 30 seconds. When chocolate is warm, melted and very squishy--mix it together good. Cut a very, very small hole in the corner of the baggie. Pretend like you are on Cup Cake Wars and drizzle the now cold cookies. Have fun--you get to play in your food! Let the chocolate harden and serve. Or just enjoy before they are cool--they may be messy!
This recipe was inspired by Cooking Classy a blog I found while looking at quilting blogs. I have no idea how I found it!