Peanut Butter Triple Threat Cookies

One of my  most favorite parts of planning Mom's surprise 80th birthday party was making all the cookies for the cookie buffet. {To be fair, my sister Lori made two kinds for me, and the week of the party, that was such a huge help! Saved me so much time!}

But before party week, there was the summer of taste-testing. I made so many kinds of cookies and trucked them, warm from the oven, over to Ryan's work to get his co-workers' opinions. They loved the summer of taste testing.

I have a peanut butter cookie recipe that I've long made {and still love} but it calls for shortening, and since changing my eating habits, I've felt the need to get away from using shortening in recipes. {Yes, I know butter is probably just as bad, but it's all in my head, okay?} So I went on the hunt for a new perfect recipe, and after some input from the work taste-testers, I came up with this one. It is very different from my old tried-and-true one, but it was a big hit.

Because I believe you cannot ever have too much peanut butter {unless, of course, you're allergic!!}, I just kept adding more and more peanut sources, and the combo of peanuts, peanut butter, and peanut butter chips made this the peanut butter triple threat.

So, without further ado...

Peanut Butter Triple Threat Cookies

* 1 cup butter, softened
* 1 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3 eggs
* 4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 cups peanut butter chips

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter and both sugars. Add vanilla and mix. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to mixture in mixing bowl and combined. Stir in peanut butter chips. Roll dough into one-inch size balls and place on a cookie sheet. Use a fork to make a cross pattern in the top and bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

* If you choose to use creamy peanut butter, you can use just 1 cup instead of 1 1/2. The first time I made these, I used only 1 cup of peanut butter, but because it was crunchy instead of creamy, there wasn't enough of the "butter" for the dough. I increased it by a half cup and that worked really well.

* If you use creamy instead of crunchy dough, rename the cookies double threat instead of triple! You just eliminated a threat! {Ha!!}

* I use pure vanilla, not imitation, and I think that makes a huge difference.

* While I often have wheat flour instead of white on hand, I did buy all-purpose flour for all the party recipes, and I have to say, it made the cookies better. Hey, I never claimed this was a healthy recipe.

* The peanut butter chips really were the extra magic touch. They took the cookies from good to WHAT?!!!?!?!?

* After you make them, store them with a slice of bread in the container to keep them soft. {I always wrap the slice of bread in a paper towel or the cookies it directly touches become gooey.}

DELICIOUS!!!!!