Chewy Peanut Butter Drizzle Cookies

 Are you in the mood for a chewy peanut butter cookie?  How about with some chocolate drizzled on top?  Sounds good to me!  These Chewy Peanut Butter Drizzle Cookies have mini chocolate surprises inside by way of a few mini chocolate chips baked inside rather than throughout the cookie like a chocolate chip cookie does.  

I love to bake and my children love cookies. This cookie baking occasion was for a going away treat for one of our little buddies, although, anytime is a good time to bake cookies.  Wouldn't you agree? Especially if you have kids.

I began with my Easy Peanut Butter Cookie recipe minus the chocolate kisses.  Also instead of our regular peanut butter we used Earth Balance natural peanut butter with flaxseed.  For no reason other than that is what we happened to have on hand at the time.  However, you can't go wrong with flaxseed, it's a super-food and a great addition to lots of foods.  If you'd like more information on flaxseed and how to use it visit my previous posts about how to get your Omega-3's and No-egg pancakes.  

The peanut butter cookie recipe is simple and can easily be doubled.  All you need is a medium or large bowl, 1 cup of peanut butter, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 egg!  For the Chewy Peanut Butter Drizzle Cookies you will also need mini chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate squares to melt for the drizzle.

I like to beat my egg first, after that you just mix the peanut butter and sugar together until thoroughly combined.  The batter should be nice and smooth.  Don't forget to pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
         

The following step it to scoop some batter into a spoon or scoop like below and add a few (or a lot) chips to the center.  This will keep the chocolate chips inside the cookie for your little bits of chocolate surprise.  If you like chocolate like I do, it's always nice to have extra here and there!

Next, add a little more batter to your scoop or spoon to cover the chips.  I just used my finger to place some more in the scoop.  You can always use another spoon, but I wouldn't suggest trying to scoop some more on using the same utensil that already has the batter and chips.  You will just lose the chips in the bowl.  If you prefer to just add the chips to the batter and mix them in like chocolate chip cookie dough, then go for it.  It'll speed things up a little, but you won't have the chocolate surprise!   

Here's a shot of them on the baking stone.  You can see some of the chips peeking through. The cookies will spread out, so keep about an inch and a half to two inches between each dough ball.  

Let the cookies cool on a cooling rack until completely cool, otherwise the chocolate drizzle will take longer to harden.  If you choose to apply the chocolate drizzle while the cookies are still warm you can wait longer to eat them OR you can speed up the process and place them in the refrigerator.  Which, I guess in the long run will be about the same amount of time, because who really wants a cold cookie?  By the way, a single batch of this dough will make you approximately 18 cookies.  Oh, and see, you wouldn't know there are chips inside...except for a couple of sneaky chips peaking through.  Just cover those chips with chocolate drizzle!  

To drizzle chocolate on a single batch of Chewy Peanut Butter Drizzle Cookies, I melted two squares of semi-sweet chocolate in a small pot on the stove top and just dipped a spoon in and made lines across the cookies.  You can also microwave the chocolate squares until melted, if you choose. 

Here is the final product.  Nicely browned, chewy, and drizzled in chocolate!  Don't forget the milk for dipping...

CHEWY PEANUT BUTTER DRIZZLE COOKIES

1 egg, beaten

1 c. peanut butter

1 c. sugar

2 squares semi-sweet chocolate

1/2 c. mini chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine beaten egg, peanut butter, and sugar. Stir until smooth.  Scoop some dough into a mini scoop or spoon, add desired amount of chocolate chips, add more dough to cover chips.  Continue making dough balls. Bake for 15 minutes on a baking stone. Less if on a metal cookie sheet. Cool on a cooling rack. Melt semi-sweet chocolate squares in a small pot on the stove top or in a bowl in the microwave. Use a spoon to drizzle melted chocolate onto cooled cookies.

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As with most of my recipes I like to give alternatives, and a couple for this recipe are to 1) mix the chocolate chips into the dough like chocolate chips cookies, and 2) instead of mini chocolate chips place a chocolate star in the middle of the dough ball.  This will give you more concentrated chocolate and will save time!

I mentioned saving time, but honestly it is pretty simple to put these cookies together so don't let that keep you from going the "chocolate chip surprise" route. Also, using different peanut butters will give you different results.  The peanut butter I used is very smooth so the cookies spread easily, but a more thick peanut butter is going to give you a heartier cookie as you can see in my Easy Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies.  Regardless of how the Chewy Peanut Butter Drizzle Cookies look, they will be delicious and full of peanut butter flavor!  Enjoy!