Fall is coming!
My husband is more familiar with the weather patterns here in Houston, so I asked him, “is it almost time for hot chocolate and sweaters and pumpkin desserts!?”
“Not even close.” He responded.
Apparently this 100 degree humid bog of a summer doesn’t go away permanently until late October.
Well, six weeks is just TOO LONG to wait for crisp Autumn cheer. I’m ready to make pumpkin bread and apple pie! I want it to be time for butternut squash soup and cinnamon flavored coffee beverages!
However, I would just feel foolish making something like that right now. Not when I have the AC cranked and a fan pointed at me just to stand in the hot kitchen for more than 10 minutes.
So I made regular old peanut butter chocolate chip cookies…and rolled them in sugar and pumpkin pie spice…
SHHHHHH…
It’s only a hint of fall, and I don’t feel bad. I held back as much as I could. The gates of sanity that are holding back celebratory fall flavored everything are still shut for now. Although I don’t have much hope that it will last long. The first day the temperature dips below 90 degrees here, I’ll probably buy a case of canned pumpkin and go nuts.
These cookies were experimental because I added instant espresso powder. I had never tried espresso with a dessert that wasn’t primarily chocolate flavored, and I really liked it! It adds a sharpness and clarity to the peanut butter flavor. Why don’t people mix coffee with peanut butter more often?
I used chunky peanut butter. Chocolate chunks + peanut chunks = yum.
You can’t have cookies without drinking milk out of a vintage milk bottle and a paper stripey straw! At least that’s what I have learned from Pinterest. It really does taste better that way!
Who decided that fork tines must be pressed into the tops of all peanut butter cookies? Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great idea. It looks pretty, and it warns peanut allergic people to skip them, but how did that get started?
I really hope you enjoy these totally normal secretly fall flavored Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. I did! PS if you accidentally replace a meal with these cookies, just remember how protein packed peanut butter is!
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup chunky, salted peanut butter
- 1 egg
- 1½ tsp vanilla
- 1½ tsp instant espresso powder
- 1¼ cups flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup chocolate chips
- 3 tbl sugar
- ¼ tsp pumpkin pie spice (optional)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease two cookie sheets, or line them with parchment paper.
- In a small cup or bowl, mix vanilla and espresso powder until espresso dissolves. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand-up mixer, add peanut butter, and both sugars. Mix on medium speed for about 2 minutes, or until well combined.
- Add egg and vanilla mixture. Continue mixing on medium speed for about one minute until well combined.
- In a medium bowl whisk together, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix together sugar and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
- Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture and mix on the lowest setting until almost combined, but a few streaks of flour remain. Add chocolate chips. Mix on the lowest setting again until dough is just combined. Finish with one or two final stirs by hand.
- Using a medium cookie scoop or a spoon, measure out 18 cookies. Roll each one in the sugar mixture and place on cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
- Using a large fork, press each cookie down once, and then again at 90 degrees from the first impression.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges just begin to turn golden brown.
- Cool for five minutes in the pan, then remove to cooling rack and let cool completely.
Pam says
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the idea AND the cookie with the bite out of it! How fun!
Lindsey Boubel says
Thanks, Pam! Cronuts soon!
christinehodge says
I love reading your posts; you are a great writer and photographer! My friend in Phoenix also starts baking anything with pumpkin the minute the temp. drops below 100. She had a 90-something degree day last week and made pumpkin bread.
In response to your fork question: Wikipedia, my favorite (un)reliable source, states, “The early peanut butter cookies…did not have fork marks. The first reference to the famous criss-cross marks created with fork tines was published in the Schenectady Gazette on July 1, 1932….The 1932 or 1933 recipes do not explain why this advice is given, though: peanut butter cookie dough is dense, and without being pressed, it will not cook evenly.”
You didn’t think I’d pass up a chance to find out the answer, did you? : )
Lindsey Boubel says
Thanks, Christine! That makes me feel better that other people want pumpkin even though it’s still hot outside! I’m so glad that you looked it up. You’re awesome. That explanation makes sense.
Sara {Home is Where The Cookies Are} says
I hear you, Sister! I don’t even think about the temperature or the AC anymore, really. I look at the calendar and switch my brain. Florida is the same! The great thing is that we can grill all.year.long!! After a while you’ll get used to it. We’ve been here over a decade now – seasons are all in your heart! 😉 I say crank the AC down to 68 for one night and have yourself some apple pie and hot chocolate!!
Lindsey Boubel says
That’s a great idea!