I always wonder what makes other people crave comfort.
A friend forgetting to call?
Cold weather outside?
Or maybe the aftershock of a particularly scary movie?
I’m also curious about how people answer that call.
Do you exercise?
Do you pet your doggie?
Do you go shoe shopping?
Do you spend 5.27 hours on your couch, plowing your way through three jars of crunchy peanut butter and 11 consecutive episodes of Ice Road Truckers with only a spoon and your remote control to keep you company?
Silly goose! No one actually does that! Uh, right.
Peanut butter is my go-to comfort tool of choice.
I’m sure there’s some Freudian reason -fond memories of PB & J brown bag lunches gone by or some such thing- but nothing calms me down like a spoonful of peanut butter.
And since I figure there are a lot of worse things to crave, I’m just going to go with it.
So I think you can see where this is going.
There may or may not be an Ice Road Truckers marathon in my future. I’m providing you with this recipe just in case there’s an Ice Road Truckers marathon in your future as well.
Quad Peanut Comfort Cookies: for those days when one spoonful of peanut butter just won’t do.
Quad Peanut Comfort Cookies
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
1 c. white sugar, granulated
2 large eggs
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. peanuts, raw
1/2 c. peanut butter (I went with crunchy peanut butter here, but smooth would work just as well.)
1/2 c. Reese’s Pieces
1/2 c. peanut butter chips
Preheat oven to 350°.
Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs and continue to beat. Slowly mix in flour, baking powder and baking soda, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating just until your dough comes together. Stir in the peanut butter – it’s OK if the peanut butter is sort of swirled throughout the dough and not fully incorporated. Fold in the chips, Pieces and peanuts. Pick off a small piece of dough and roll between your palms into a ball approximately 1 – 1 1/2″ in diameter. Set dough ball on a parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat for the remainder of the dough. Note that these cookies will spread while baking so you should try not to crowd your baking sheet; I fit 8 cookies on my standard half-sheet pan.
Bake cookies for 15 minutes. Finished cookies will be puffed, spread and just starting to turn golden at the edges. Remove to wire racks to cool.
YIELD: approximately 35 cookies
Holy cow, I need these in my life. These look awesome and will absolutely make my PB-lovin’ hubs a happy man.
Peanut butter overhawl!! I definitely reach for a big soft cookie when I need some comfort.
I love that these are called comfort cookies! And such nice pictures. I just found you through Foodgawker and I’m so happy I did. And is it bad that I almost always crave comfort unless I’m at home? It’s just so much cozier here AND I can wear pajamas.
Welcome, Erin! And not bad at all: home is where the heart is!
OMG delicious! I use all of the coping methods above. I think they balance each other out. I haven’t had four jars of peanut butter but I can clearly remember emptying a full jar within a 24 hour period. I think the cookies would work better. I cannot wait to try these out and I don’t think I am going to wait till I really need them.
I think chicken fried steak is my ultimate comfort food but I don’t even remember the last time I ate it. I guess cookies would be second because I do make (and eat) a lot of those. These look outta this world, Meagan!
A long, tedious day at work is all the reason I need for comfort! I usually come home and mull through a dozen dessert/baking books! But it would all the more comforting if I had a batch of these to snack on. There definitely IS something about peanut butter that is so comforting and these look fabulous! BEAUTIFUL photographs! : )
Peanut butter is totally a comfort food for me too! These are awesome!
These would definitely bring comfort to my world
These are RIGHT up my alley. I love PB beyond all words. I even wanted to add PB to the Compost Cookies but refrained..but I really wanted to
Beautiful cookies, Meagan!
I’m usually a meat and potatoes kind of comfort gal, but these might make me change that! I might skip the peanuts and add choc chips. chocolate being another comfort.
Thank you and Happy Friday!!
These are so yummy. Nothing like comfort food. I am feeling the need for that today. People bug me. I’m not liking people today. I might just have to park on the couch and watch 5 hours of real housewives with a tub of something or other. Or make these cookies and eat them while they are all hot.
I feel your pain. Go for the Housewives, the tub, AND the warm cookies.
I’m a fan of hitting the gym when I’m a bad mood. I wish a puppy to pet, that would make it all better! These cookies look awesome, I love using peanut butter chips!
I pet my doggie…while eating peanut butter which I share with the doggie
I like cookies AND shoe shopping AND exercising. Fabulous cookies
These look amazing! I tend to turn to Nutella for comfort, a nice spoonful and i’m happy!
Sounded similar to a peanut cookie recipe that I adore BUT then you added peanut butter chips — and I fainted.
Hahaha… not laughing at whatever is causing you the need for comfort, laughing because I identify! I answered the call of needing comfort in the form of peanut butter too many times during my stressful college days and actually made myself stop buying peanut butter to avoid the spoon binges. I’ve since lowered my stress levels qnd have found other way to cope… so I am happy to say that PB is a member of my pantry once again! These look awesome.
When I need some comfort I go for ice cream or make cookies. They need chocolate in them. These would do just nicely on a sad day!