Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Yesterday afternoon, I went to my storage room to get a bag of chocolate chips. My oldest son is getting his Eagle Scout award on Sunday, and I wanted to have a couple of days to get all of my baking done for the guests who will want refreshments afterward. Much to my dismay, there were no more chocolate chips in my stock. Rats! I always have chocolate chips. What’s up with that? All I could find was a bag of peanut butter chips that I must have bought on an extra-good sale, because I honestly don’t know what to do with peanut butter chips. Since it was all I had, I took the bag upstairs and looked at it. I didn’t really like the cookie or the brownie recipe on the back—they called for more peanut butter and I didn’t feel like working with sticky, messy peanut butter right then. But the idea of doing a sheet of bar cookies sounded appealing as I was short on time.

I took down my favorite brownie recipe, given to me by a good friend, and tried to do something in-between them and the cookie recipe on the bag. I’ve made cookies enough in my lifetime to know approximately what goes into an average recipe, what the dough is supposed to look like, and that if it tastes good before you bake it, they should be just fine when they come out of the oven. (I also know roughly what a half-cup of shortening looks like, so I just took a knife and scooped some into the bowl, like I said, I wasn’t in the mood for cleaning up a lot of sticky stuff.)

The batter was large enough to not only make a sheet of bar cookies, but to also get 18 round cookies for our stake dance Saturday night. When my husband got home, we split one of the cookies to make sure they tasted good enough for company. After I told him what I did he said, “Did you write down the recipe?”
“Um, not yet,” I replied
“Write it down right now, I’ve never had cookies that taste quite like this before.”
So here is my latest experiment, courtesy of John's insistence that I be able to duplicate it. If you want to come to the court of honor tomorrow night, you can sample them for yourself. :o)

2 sticks (1 c.) butter
1/2 c. shortening
2 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. cocoa
1/4 t. salt
1/2 T. baking powder
1 T. vanilla
4 eggs
4 c. flour
1 bag peanut butter chips

Blend all ingredients together except flour and chips. Add flour 1 cup at a time until well mixed. Stir in chips.

For round cookies, reserve some of the chips and press 4-5 chips into ball of dough before baking. It takes an extra minute or two, but they look a lot nicer that way. Bake 8 minutes at 350.
For bar cookies, spread batter evenly into pan with the back of a large spoon, then smooth together with fingertips. Bake 25 minutes at 350. (This picture isn't very good, since it looks like I burned it, but it's really because it's chocolate batter and just makes a dark cookie.)
Enjoy!