Double Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

My Dad's birthday is on Tuesday! I asked him what kind of cookie he wanted me to make to send him and the only guideline he gave me was peanut butter. Lovely! A lot less complicated than the brother's request. That, and I've seen multiple recipes floating around online with mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I loved having an excuse to try one of them :)

These cookies are jam-packed with goodies! Pudding, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and mini Reese's. One of the problems I have with peanut butter cookies is that they are always dry. I hate that. A lot of Internet research was done looking for a moist peanut butter cookie. I finally found this recipe by Six Sisters that uses a box of instant pudding to keep the cookies moist. My curiosity was piqued.

I can't say if it was the pudding or not, but these cookies are plenty moist. I did alter the recipe just a little bit to include more peanut butter. I was almost sad when I had to ship all these away yesterday, they were so good. I might have to make a batch just for me :)

Ingredients:
1 cup + 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, room temp
1 tbsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 (4 oz) box of instant vanilla pudding
1 large bag of mini Reese's (8 oz)
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Cream peanut butter and butter in a large mixing bowl. Add in both sugars and mix until mixture is creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing completely. Mix in vanilla.
2. In a small separate bowl, whisk together flour through salt. In 3 additions, add flour mixture to butter mixture. Mix in vanilla pudding.
3. Fold in mini Reese's and chocolate chips. Place dough in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Roll dough into little balls and place 1-2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. I was able to fit 12 cookies on a sheet, the cookies don't spread too much. Make an indentation on the cookies with a fork, if desired. Bake in preheated oven 7-8 minutes. Cookies are ready when they've browned a little bit at the bottom edges. Don't over-bake.
6. Cool on cookie sheet 5 minutes and then remove cookies to a cooling rack. Cool completely before storage. Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Recipe adapted from Six Sister's 

More cookie madness! Cookies cooling before I shipped them off.