Ina suggests using high quality semi-sweet chocolate. I used Bakers (just a so-so brand), yellow M&M's and an exotic candy bar that I received in a swap with my Ohio food blogger friend Josie of
1 Kitchen, 2 Dogs and a Girl (thanks Josie!) The exotic bar contained chilies and cinnamon, and I thought that might be an interesting addition to the peanut butter.
I split the cookie batter into three parts and added each experimental element to the mix.
No one else was around, so I had to taste a bit of each (with a dunker of milk, of course.)
The result: The peanut butter cookie itself had a bit of crunch to it. The addition of M&M's is a no-brainer... M&M cookies always rock. The Baker's semi-sweet chocolate... I wish I had bought a higher quality chocolate. They were good, but not excellent. The exotic candy bar... it was an interesting addition with the cinnamon and a very slight flavor of heat with the chilies. I might prefer those flavors in a regular choc. chip cookie. I liked the M&M cookies best.
Dorie Greenspan has a recipe for
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies that I highlighted in my post on
Best Cookies of 2007. Dorie's cookies are superior to Ina's in my amateur cookie baking opinion. In Dorie's recipe, she uses cinnamon/nutmeg and bittersweet chocolate, which I prefer. Dorie pretty much has the food blogger world singing her praises with her great baking recipes. I don't wish to give Ina too much flack though because her cookies might be much, much better if you use a good quality chocolate (and peanut butter too!)
Ina's recipe for
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies can be found
HERE.