Good Bad Cookies

There are times when life gets in the way of pretty much anything else. Visitors, and lots of fun, and travel, and lots of fun, and trying to clean your house up into the no-really-this-is-how-we-live-our-children-don’t-make-mess state required for potential buyers to be able to consider living there gets in the way of just cooking dinner, much less writing about it. Now that the house is tidy and we seem to have tracked down all the odors emanating from behind furniture and all the,’ Oops, I appear to be stuck,’ patches have been scraped off the floor and we have returned from what seemed like a cross country road trip which was, in reality, just a few hundred miles up the coast, and our fridge is empty of leftovers, I am back in cooking mode. At least until my new, but not particularly successful, knitting hobby takes over.

Shortly after New Year and in the midst of my determination to not resolve to do anything, I realized that I had to do something with the jar of a certain chocolate-hazelnut spread that someone, silly person, had put in Stephen’s Christmas stocking. Left on its own, it was going to meet no better end than a teaspoon straight into someone’s waiting, and knowing better, gob. At least if I baked it up into something else, it would disperse the no-goodness and it could be more easily shared around.

I made the cookies but I couldn’t post them, too many resolutions would be swearing them off. Something this bad but good needed an audience. So, I waited and, well, I have waited long enough. It is February people (at least it feels that way at home, I am told), and you all need something to do on your snow days (I miss snow days, I really, really do). Plus, you will deserve them after all that shoveling (I miss shoveling, really I do). Plus, if I had some snow to shovel, I would then deserve to eat more of them.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Hazelnut Spread Cookies

1 1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut spread

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Beat peanut butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla together. 

Mix flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl. Mix in to wet ingredients.

When wet and dry are fully mixed, stir in the chocolate chips and chocolate hazelnut spread.

Roll into balls and place on baking sheet lined with parchment. Flatten with a floured fork. 

Bake for about 10 minutes. Careful, these are pretty easy to overbake.

Cool.

Makes about 24.