I don’t think that there is a more perfect flavour combination that chocolate and peanut butter. 🙂

I tasted my first crackle cookie last Christmas.  My friend, Kerri had brought them in as her contribution to our office cookie exchange.  I was hooked on my first bite, they are absolutely delicious.  They taste like a brownie – perfect!

I wanted to make up a batch this past weekend, but ran into some issues when I went to gather everything out of the baking cupboard.  Have you ever had this happen to you?  You pre-heat your oven and start to pull out the ingredients, only to realize that you are missing key elements.

The original recipe called for semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I only had milk chocolate and dark chocolate chips.  I figured that I would just use the milk chocolate chips, but as I read further down the instructions, I realized that I needed to melt chocolate chips and add whole chocolate chips.  I didn’t have enough milk chocolate to do both, so I melted the dark chocolate and added the milk chocolate chips.

I really should start planning out my baking a bit more in advance, because when I got to the part in the directions when I had to add the whole chocolate chips, I noticed that I didn’t have enough.  That just would not do!  I went back to the baking cupboard and discovered a bag of Reese peanut butter chips.  Chocolate and peanut butter, this was going to work out just fine.

So, I added all the ingredients together and thought that the next step would be to make them into balls and roll them in icing sugar.  Nope.  I had to chill the dough for a few hours and then form them into balls.  WOW, I really should read the entire recipe over before I start baking.  I turned off my pre-heated oven, grabbed a book and a cup of coffee and waited a few hours to continue baking.

Fast forward three hours.  The dough was chilled, the oven was pre-heated (again) and I started making chocolate peanut butter cookie dough balls and tossing them in icing sugar.  This was fun, and I could really see doing something like this with my nephew, Sam.  I could see him having a lot of fun with this part of the cookie making process.

Into the oven they went, and the kitchen smelled amazing.  It was kind of cool how the cookies crackle (just like the title says).  I tried to resist tasting one as soon as they came out of the oven, but resistance was futile.  I sampled one, and yes, it was very hot, but totally worth it!

This cookie will be in our regular cookie rotation, but I imagine that Jamie wants me to wait a month or so before I whip up another batch.  Let’s just say that he had more than his fair share of this cookie creation. 😉

Kerri thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe!

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Adapted from:
Robin Hood – For the Love of Baking – Milk Chocolate Fudge Crackles

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup peanut butter chips
• 3/4 cup icing sugar

Directions:

1. Over low heat, melt shortening and dark chocolate chips.  Add in sugar and eggs.  Stir well and let cool for five minutes.
2. Mix in sweetened condensed milk and vanilla.  Add in the flour, baking powder, salt, chocolate and peanut butter chips.  Mix well to combine.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 325°F.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
4. In a shallow bowl, sift icing sugar.  Roll chilled dough into one inch balls.  Drop formed balls into icing sugar and toss lightly until well covered.  Place on prepared baking sheet and flatten slightly.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 10-11 minutes or until just beginning to feel firm when pressed in the centre.  Let cool on baking sheet on wire rack for five minutes.  Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
6. Try to resist sampling while the cookies are hot!