These Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter and Almond Cookies are slightly crunchy on the outside, but have a soft texture in the inside. The saltiness of the honey roasted peanuts and almonds combat the sweetness of the milk chocolate to make for one killer cookie.
I’ve never been a huge fan of nuts in cookies, or really just nuts in general. It wasn’t until recently when I started trying to incorporate more protein into my daily diet that they really began to grow on me. Now, I eat a handful or two of almonds or peanuts a day, and they have become one of my favorite mid-day snacks. As I was thinking of a cookie to make yesterday, the idea of combining these two new loves came to mind. My dad was making a three hour trip to help me assemble this impossible-million-piece desk, so I knew I had to make something that combined his favorite combo of chocolate & peanut butter to reward such an angelic deed.
I’m typically one to make bite-sized cookies, but I decided to double it up this time so that I could ensure there would be plenty of dough to hold in the nuts. Plus, if anyone was going to drive 3 hours to help this helpless-desk-assembling daughter, spend 6 hours assembling it, then drive 3 hours back home, then they deserved a large, large cookie. Or 30.
These cookies are slightly crunchy on the outside, but have a soft texture in the inside. The saltiness of the honey roasted peanuts and almonds combat the sweetness of the milk chocolate to make for one killer cookie.
Oh, and did I mention there are peanuts inside the cookies, too? In addition to rolling the dough balls in a almond/peanut mixture, adding a 1/2 cup of peanuts inside the dough gives them an extra baked-in peanut flavor. These are truly for true nut lovers only.
Because of their slightly crunchy outside and soft inside, these make for a great milk-dunking cookie. I’m not a huge milk lover, so it takes a pretty solid cookie for me to want to dunk it in milk. And this my friends, I would dunk in buckets of milk if it meant I could eat more cookies.
Nuts. Nuts everywhere.
And when the cookie is bigger than the glass of milk, you know you’ve done well.
Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter and Almond Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup 1 stick butter
- 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 cup lightly salted whole almonds
- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts
For Rolling:
- 1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts
- 1/2 cup lightly salted almonds chopped
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Instructions
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In a medium-sized glass bowl, melt milk chocolate chips and butter in the microwave (at 50% power) for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from microwave and stir mixture until creamy. If needed, continue to microwave in 20 second increments until chips & butter are melted together. Allow to cool for 2 minutes, then pour chocolate & butter mixture into large mixing bowl.
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Add peanut butter, cocoa powder, sugar, and brown sugar and mix with an electric mixer for 30 seconds on medium speed.
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Add in egg and vanilla and continue to mix. Next, add baking soda and mix on low speed for 10 seconds.
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In a food processor, chop almonds until finely ground into a coarse powder. Add to dough and mix on low speed for 20 seconds.
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With the mixer still on low speed, slowly add in flour, one cup at a time. Mix until all flour is incorporated (should take 10-20 seconds).
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Stir in the honey roasted peanuts and mix until evenly dispersed throughout dough.
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Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and set aside.
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In a separate small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts and 1/2 cup chopped almonds. (This is what you will roll the balls of dough into before baking.)
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Scoop and roll dough into two-tablespoon balls. Roll each ball in almond/peanut mixture.
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Before rolling the balls onto the cookie sheet, lightly flatten the dough balls with your hands so they are more like discs (do not flatten past 1/2 inch thick). This will help the cookies bake more evenly & will result in a prettier cookie. Once the balls are lightly flattened, place on cookie sheet. You may need to lightly press some of the nuts into the cookies to ensure they bake in and do not fall off.
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Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. After removing from oven, allow the cookies to cool on the hot baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them from cookie sheet. See note below regarding baking time.
Last Step! Please leave a review and rating letting me know how you liked this recipe! This helps my small business thrive so I can continue providing free recipes and high-quality content for you.
Recipe Notes
Part of the trick to their softness is to allow the cookies to sit on the hot cookie sheet for 5-10 minutes after removing them from the oven. This allows them to finish baking on the hot pan, without getting the direct heat of the oven that typically causes browned edges or crunch cookies. The cookies will most likely look slightly underdone after 12 minutes in the oven, and that’s okay.
Nutrition
How do you feel about nuts in cookies or other baked goods? It’s definitely a love or hate type of deal, so I’d love to hear your preference. If you’re not a huge nut lover, have no fear. I will be posting plenty of nut-free recipes this month. My little sister told me to “make normal cookies, like without all that junk in them” so I definitely know there’s plenty of anti-nut people out there. (At least she’s subtle with the hints, huh?) Message received loud and clear, ya little nut. Nut-free cookies at your service.
