Yin-Yang PB Chocolate Cookies

Disaster struck today. Two of these babies calmly slid right off the plate as I was clambering over the balcony after shooting them, back into our house. I shrieked like it was me who had fallen down. Though I think these cookies are worth more.

Amaze. Ing.

For all those days when you can’t decide what kind of cookie you want, make these. Two cookies in one. And oddly, they take no longer to make than if you were making just one kind. Funny how that turned out 🙂

You could easily justify them for a spectacular breakfast with a hot cup of coffee. Every necessary food group is present: carbs, fat, dairy, protein and chocolate. Hee 🙂

The idea came from here and I made a few changes like reducing the sugar quite a bit and using PB chips instead of only chocolate. So the PB cookie bit has chocolate chips and vice versa. Is it peanut butter or chocolate? You’ll never quite know.

Don’t they look just like little yin-yang symbols? I toyed with the idea of putting only one chocolate or PB chip on each to recreate the symbol exactly. But that would have meant just ONE chip per cookie. ONE. I couldn’t do that you guys.

The dough is a bit fiddly because it needs to be chilled a lot to result in thick cookies in this horrendous heat. I changed the method a bit to suit all that chilling! But otherwise, the cookies are a breeze to make. Try and ensure that when you smoosh the two types of dough balls together, they’re roughly the same size. I had a few where the PB side was gigantic. Not complaining though!

I also landed up with some extra PB dough (there’s more flour in that one) and baked a couple of them as is. In all, I got 9 yin-yang cookies and 2 plain peanut butter ones.

Most cookie recipes recommend under-baking but that’s never gone down well with me. I usually land up with soft, but very fragile cookies. And these are heavy because there’s a lot more dough. Baking these for 15 minutes still results in the softest, chewiest cookies, and they stay together. Win win 🙂

I halved the recipe to make a small batch, feel free to double, triple, whatever you like!

Cookie heaven, much? Two cookies in one, plenty of guilt but oh so worth it 🙂

The peanut butter bit is chewy and soft as a pillow. The chocolate bit is exactly as awesome but you know, with chocolate. Just unbelievable together.

 

What you’ll need:

For the chocolate cookie dough

1/4 cup butter (add a pinch of salt if using unsalted), softened to room temperature

1/4 cup castor sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar (brown sugar doesn’t melt down like castor sugar does, so expect some crunch, or simply replace with castor sugar)

1/2 large egg (beat one egg and use half for each dough)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 tbsp milk

1/3 cup PB/chocolate chips

 

For the peanut butter cookie dough

 1/4 cup butter (add a pinch of salt if using unsalted), softened to room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar (brown sugar doesn’t melt down like castor sugar does, so expect some crunch, or simply replace with castor sugar)

1/4 cup castor sugar

1/2 large egg (beat one egg and use half for each dough)

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 and 1/8 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup chocolate chips 

 

What to do:

1. Chocolate cookie dough: Sift the flour, baking soda and cocoa. Set aside.

2. Cream the butter and sugar, add half the egg, vanilla and beat well. Mix in the flour. Add the milk to soften the dough and fold in the chocolate/peanut butter chips. Cover the dough and chill for 2 hours.

3. Peanut butter cookie dough: Sift the flour, baking soda. Set aside.

4. Cream the butter and sugar, then add the peanut butter, egg, vanilla and beat well. Mix in the flour. Fold in the chocolate chips. Cover the dough and chill for 2 hours.

5. Preheat the oven to 175 C. Take both doughs out of the fridge. Roll the chocolate dough into 9 medium sized balls and set on a big plate or baking tray. Chill again. The chocolate dough is sticker than the peanut butter dough so this is essential in this weather.

6. Now make the peanut butter dough balls, keeping the size as similar as you can to the chocolate ones.

7. Take out the chilled chocolate dough balls and smoosh one of each type together and mould them so they don’t fall apart.

8. Place them vertically (basically so you can see both sides) on a greased baking tray and bake for 13 to 15 minutes. Don’t let the cookies get too brown.

9. If you like, press some more chips into the hot cookies after taking them out. Let the cookies cool completely before tasting.

Double trouble 🙂 Scroll down for more PB awesomeness!

 

If you like the combination of PB and chocolate, you’re going to LOVE these 🙂

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Double Peanut Butter Brownies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Oreo Cupcakes

Reese’s Cups Cookies