Peanut Butter Chip & Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ooooh these cookies. They have almost become known as “THE Cookies” over the years. They are by far one of the best cookies I’ve ever eaten. The name of them is quite long, so maybe the nickname The Cookies works out well. Or PB-3C Cookies?  I don’t know that might sound a little too much like “PVC pipe” to me. Or maybe I’ve just been spending too much time doing Crossfit.

Over Valentine’s/President’s Day weekend we had some friends coming to ski/visit and the request came in, “can you please make The Cookies??”  So glad you asked because I love any excuse to make The Cookies!!!  It was probably the warmest weather I’ve ever skied in!  I literally sat at lunch, outside, in the middle of February, snow on the ground, sun shining, sweating in just my base layer.  And we had a nice, long, slow lunch.  So I shed it.  Yep, sat at lunch in my sports bra.  Was skiing and tanning in the same day; Colorado is one crazy state.  I always heard about there being snow on the ground and people running outside in shorts and a t-shirt in the Colorado winter sunshine.  I didn’t get it before.  But now I do.  Colorado rocks.

P.S. Is that not the cutest lift ticket you’ve ever seen?  We skied on Valentine’s day and the lift tickets at Wolf Creek said “BMINE”.  Adorable.

I love a chewy cookie.  These are just as close to perfect as I think I’ll ever get.  They have Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips and chocolate chunks in them. The cookie itself is has a secret ingredient in it: Jello pudding mix.  Maybe you’ve heard of that before, but if not, it really helps keep cookies soft and chewy!  There’s also a hint of salt in the dough that just compliments everything.

The first time I had The Cookies was at a Club Swim Team banquet in college.  I joined the swim club as a senior because I wanted to do a triathlon.  So I needed to learn how to swim.  I mean, I could swim, but I’m talking legit swim, like don’t-drown-in-the-open-water-of-a-triathlon swim.  So I joined the collegiate club team when I was a senior.  With all the kids who didn’t get cut from the swim team freshman year of high school (<cough!> like me <cough!>) and who swam all of high school.  I’m forever grateful to that bunch of swimmers who took me in with open arms, encouraged me, helped me, and didn’t make fun of me. Changed. my. life.

Senior swimmers at our last meet. Yes, I’m the one with the obbbvious tan lines. This was right after spring break, ok??

I had to learn flip turns.  And in my first swim meet I had to DO flip turns.  Like 20 in a row. One of the scariest moments of my life.  I was so out of breath by the time I got to the other end of the pool and then I had to hold my breath to turn??  It felt insane.  But I survived.  And I can do flip turns now!  And what was epic was that I went from getting last (by two minutes) at my first swim meet to getting first at my last meet!  (Never mind that at that last meet I was the only one who signed up for that 500 meter freestyle event.  Shhh, our little secret!)  All that matters to me is that I met my goal: I finished an olympic distance triathlon!  And then a sprint tri.  And then another olympic, then another.  And now, I total 6 sprints, 12 olympics, 6 half Ironmans, and one full Ironman completed.  25 total tri’s.  I’ll take it!!  And I think I get some cookies for all that.

My family came down to see my final collegiate club swim meet — ya know, the one where I got first place! — and at our banquet we had these cookies.  My mom and I took one bite, looked at each other, and went, “who made these?  We need the recipe!”  Well, we got it.  And since then I’ve been tweaking/making them.

My college roommate and I took Advanced Food Science together and she tried to make them healthier for one of our projects.  She worked on substitutes for the butter only to find out that most of the calories actually came from the peanut butter and chocolate chips 🙂  Oops.  Another infamous oops was the time another girlfriend and I made these cookies, put a couple trays in the oven and noticed the eggs on the counter.  Oops.  Without the egg we had rock-hard, crunchy cookies.  So we made like we were on Chopped and decided to crunch up the cookies and stir them into vanilla ice cream.  Winner, winner.  I suggest “making this mistake” at least once.

Well, the secret’s out.  Enjoy the recipe and leave your questions and comments below!!