Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's shaping up to be a wacky week for weather and natural disasters here in Baltimore.  We had an earthquake on Tuesday, and are now preparing for Hurricane Irene which is poised to hit us Saturday night into Sunday.  According to my friend Emily, that makes this the week of the dreaded HURRIQUAKE!!!  Everybody freak out!!  *Composes self and moves on...*

Since Sean and I have decided (for the time being, anyway) to stay here and ride it out, we needed to stock up on the essentials in case the power goes out, which I pessimistically have a feeling that it will.

That means we need to bake cookies, right?!  I think it means we need to bake cookies.

They may not be the most inventive cookies in the world, but they are still pretty darn tasty.  

You'll need:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg**
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 package chocolate chips (about 2 cups)
a few extra tbs of granulated sugar

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.  Beat the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract on medium until creamy.  Beat in the egg until light and fluffy.  Next, a little at a time, mix in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt on low speed until well-blended.  Stir in the chocolate chips.

Oh Kitchen Aid stand mixer, how I adore thee.

Place that extra sugar on a small plate/in a bowl.  Scoop out some dough and roll it between your palms until a nice round ball forms.  Drop the dough balls into the plate/bowl with sugar and roll them around until coated.

Please excuse my strangely thumbless-looking hand.

Place the dough onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 9-12 minutes or until the edges are set but the centers remain soft.  Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then move to wire racks to finish cooling.  Once they're cool (or not, if you can't wait!), dig on in!

**FYI - It turns out I didn't have any eggs.  I was able to substitute 1/4 cup applesauce for the missing egg, and they turned out just fine!