Kids Cooking Thursday: Aztec Choc Peanut Butter Cookies

I saw these great stuffed cookies over at Dragon's Kitchen and had half a jar of unsalted peanut butter that I wanted to get rid of. Unsalted peanut butter is great in theory, but in practice no one in the house would eat it, except occasionally Master One. Seems it must have been more than just occasionally, because when I opened the jar to make these cookies, there was only a 1/4 cup left. So instead of stuffed cookies, I played with the recipe a little. What follows is what I did, but please go check out the original recipe, because they look so delicious!

Aztec Choc Peanut Butter Cookies
1 1/2 cups wholemeal plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Dutch cinnamon
1/4 tsp speculaas kruiden (omit if you can find it)
two shakes mexican chilli powder
1/2 tsp salt (if using salted or regular, non-health food peanut butter, cut this back to 1/4 tsp)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180°C. In a medium mixing bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, spices, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl beat together butter, sugars, and peanut butter with an electric mixer until combined. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; beat well. Beat in as much of the dry ingredients as you can with mixer. Stir in remaining dry ingredients by hand with a wooden spoon. Don't add the chocolate chips with the mixer! Form chocolate dough into 2cm round balls.

Place balls 3-4cms apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Lightly flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in the 2 tablespoons granulated sugar.
Bake cookies in preheated oven for 8 minutes or until they're just set and surface is slightly cracked. Let cookies stand for 1 minute. Transfer cookies to wire racks; cool.

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