Curtis Stone's Ultimate Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chunks

Sweets are for women and steaks are for men.

Is this stereotype saying true?

Typically, most people like to associate tough blokes with steaks, burgers, chips, bacon... Do men like eating sweets? For my one and a half men, they do. Like most typical men, they love steaks, burgers, chips, bacon but they love chocolates and peanut butter too.

Curtis Stone called these cookies his ultimate cookies. Who is Curtis Stone? Born in Melbourne, Australia, Curtis Stone is an Australian celebrity chef. He has been a popular Aussie household name appearing on Coles website demonstrating cooking and feeding a typical family of four for less than AUD$10.

How ultimate are these cookies? After my first bite, I can clearly see their ultimacy. The irresistible combination of chocolates and peanut butter plus their very soft-fudgy centers are clearly Curtis's definition of ultimate factors.

Ok. ok. Some men like sweets but can men bake? Clearly, Curtis Stone can. Can you imagine marrying a good looking bloke that can cook and bake? *dreaming*... What if my little man can be "Curtis Stone" one day? - LOL!

Wake up, Zoe! - You sounds like a desperate housewife thinking of these... Let's move on and start baking.

Instead of using electric mixer, I'm training my little Curtis-wannabe to mix this cookie dough with his "piggy" spoon. With all these mixing and arm muscles exercises, I was hoping too that my son can be an Australia IRONMAN... LOL! To do that, the butter that we used has to be well soften and we have chosen to bake these cookies on a mild winter day - with a little help from our reverse-cycle air conditioner.

My son was having lots of fun mixing and baking these cookies. Little did he know that mum is actually hoping that he can "Curtis Stone" one day...

Our peanut butter cookies with chocolate chunks

My boy was flexing lots of his arm muscles to mix the cookie batter.

We forget to add the honey but lucky not the chocolate!

Baking the cookies - don't over-bake if you are after gooey and soft centers.

These freshly baked cookies are very very soft. Cooling them completely is essential...

... unless, you can't wait.

Here's the recipe from the book, Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone or Curtis Stone.com
(with my modification and notes in blue)

Makes about 20 cookies

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
(replaced by baking powder)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup natural chunky peanut butter (about 280g)
(I used the 25% fat reduced one)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated / caster sugar
(I used raw caster sugar)
1/2 cup (125 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
(very well soften at room temperature)
1 ½ tbsp honey
(We forget to add this) 1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
155 g semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
(I used chocolate with 70% cocoa)

Boy: Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C. (or 160°C fan forced)

Mum: Line 3 heavy large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Boy: Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

Boy: Using an electric mixer (or a piggy spoon), beat the peanut butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, honey (We forget to add this), egg, and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended.

Boy: Stir the dry ingredients into the peanut butter mixture in 2 additions.

Boy: Stir in the chopped chocolate

Mum: Scoop about 3 tablespoonfuls of dough for each cookie onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart. (We rolled about one tablespoonfuls of dough for each cookie.)

Mum: Bake for about 12 mins, or until the cookies puff and begin to brown on top but are still very soft to the touch.

Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 mins.

Mum: Using a metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a rack and eat warm or cool completely.

Note: Using this recipe, I have baked 29 cookies at 160°C fan forced for 13 mins.

Warning: These cookies are really very soft to touch but they will have a nice fudgy centers. With soft sugary centers, these cookies taste like hybrids of cookies and fudges. Although we feel that the cookies are more towards the sweeter side, munching these can be addictive and everything was all gone without much complains.

Happy Baking
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