I baked: Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

If you ask my kids, "Do you want to play with that new toy or help mummy to bake in the kitchen?", they would always go for the second option. They're always so eager to help me stir the mix or mash the fruits (or just anything that I let them help with). So, whenever I can, I will pick a recipe that is less messy and kids-friendly so that we can do it together as a weekend or holiday activity.

One day, we made these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies together, as I would be meeting our friends CK and Kenny for dinner and CK is a big fan of peanut butter.  We wanted to make these cute shapes with our cookie moulds, but the dough turned out to be too soft, hence we only managed basic shapes such as heart, circle and gingerbread man shapes. They do spread out quite a bit, hence you may not be able to recognise them by the time they come out of the oven. So perhaps this one is best made as round shapes. But at least we tried :) Good job kids!

Though they didn't look as pretty as I had envisaged them to be, we did love how they tasted, sweet-salty with a slightly chewy texture. The crunchy peanut butter and chocolate chips also added extra texture to it. Baby C and D managed to eat them all by evening. (Well, they did save a very small piece for mummy and daddy.)

Perfect treat for a peanut butter lover ;)

Baby D gives it a big "thumbs up"

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
Preparation time: 20-30 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Makes 18-20

Ingredients
125g butter, softened at room temperature
150g chunky peanut butter
200g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
75g chocolate chips

1. Lightly grease 2 baking trays with a little butter.

2. Using an electric whisk, beat the butter and peanut butter together in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar gradually, and beat well.

3. Add the beaten egg, a little at a time, beating well after each addition until it is thoroughly combined.

4. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the peanut butter mixture. Then, add the chocolate chips and mix to form a soft dough.

Helping mummy in the kitchen

5. Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

6. Shape the dough into 20 balls and place them on the prepared baking trays about 5cm apart to allow for spreading during cooking. Flatten them slightly with your hand.

7. Alternatively, you can shape them using cookie moulds. Do note that the cookies spread quite a fair bit during baking so the shapes will most likely change by the time the cookies come out of the oven. (Also only use those basic shapes as the dough is quite soft)

8. Bake in a preheated oven, 190°C for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in tray for 5-10 minutes, then transfer the biscuits to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's FB page on 1 Nov 2012.