On the particular day when I baked these cookies, I had salty/sweet on the brain.
It was a Tuesday morning, and Tuesday mornings at culinary school are a bit of a lazy bore. Four straight hours of theory class.
Yes.
Four. Hours. Straight.
Two hours of ‘bullying in the workplace’ and two hours of ‘intro to hospitality’, back to back, in the same classroom, with the same group.
I LOSE my mind.
I’m pretty sure no one learns anything. So I spend my time scrolling through Pinterest, using the Foodgawker app, doing lots of Facebook and Instagram stalking, checking emails… whatever I can do on my iPhone to keep myself occupied, I do it.
On this particular morning, I was hungry and dreaming of food. Coming up with yummy combinations in my head. Cookies, mainly. I had cookies on the brain.
Sweet, salty, crunchy, chunky cookies. I was thinking pretzels, salt, chocolate, peanut butter, fudginess, potato chips. Oh, man. I wanted to bake them all into one big, yummy, SOMETHING.
Then we all got a text saying that our afternoon practical pastries class was cancelled. So I could go home, and bake!
And this is what I came up with. A fudgy chocolate and peanut butter combination, with salty Ritz cracker chunks and sweet chocolate chips. Just bake these, okay? Please, for yourself, you just have to.
- FOR THE PEANUT BUTTER CHUNKS
- ½ cup peanut butter (140g, 5 oz)
- 30g unsalted butter (1 oz)
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- pinch salt
- ½ cup + 2 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
- FOR THE COOKIES
- 110g unsalted butter, softened (1 cup)
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup + 2 tbsp white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1¼ cup + 2 tbsp plain flour
- ¼ cup + 2 tbsp cocoa
- 14 Ritz crackers (or pretzels)
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¾ cup chocolate chips
- FOR THE PEANUT BUTTER CHUNKS
- Combine the peanut butter, unsalted butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Stir until bubbles begin to appear. Remove from the heat.
- Add the icing sugar a couple of tablespoons at a time, stirring well between each addition.
- Drop tiny bits of the peanut butter filling onto a tray lined with baking paper. Put in the freezer while you make the cookies.
- FOR THE COOKIES
- Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F) and line a couple of trays with baking paper.
- Crush the Ritz crackers into small chunks with a rolling pin or mortar and pestle.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and both sugars until well combined and visibly lighter. Add the egg and beat until incorporated.
- Mix in the flour, cocoa, Ritz crackers, baking soda and salt. Then gently fold in the chocolate chips and peanut butter chunks.
- Scoop tablespoons of dough onto lined trays and bake for 10 minutes. Makes 22 cookies. Recipe can easily be doubled.
- Happy baking!