Chocolate and Peanut-Butter Ripples

Chocolate and Peanut-Butter Ripples
Source: Maida Heatter's Brand-New Book of Great Cookies (Random House, 1995 ed.), pg. 47.

These cookies taste like chocolate peanut butter cookies. I thought that the ripple effect might be more pronounced but they are not and they appear mostly at the edges of the cookie. They are still quite yummy, easy to make but somewhat time consuming. The cookies appear soft but they become crisper as they cool. They are fragile and do not travel well.

Chocolate Dough

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 325 and line several cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler and set aside.

Cream the butter and add the vanilla, salt and sugar and beat well.

Add the melted chocolate.

Add the egg.

On low speed, add the flour and beat until smooth.

Peanut-Butter Dough

2 TBS. unsalted butter
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 TBS. sifted all-purpose flour 

The peanut-butter dough can be mixed in a small bowl with an electric mixer. Mix the peanut butter with the butter.

 

Add the brown sugar and the flour.

 

Shaping the Cookies

Divide the chocolate dough in half.

Drop one half of the chocolate dough by teaspoons about 2 inches apart
onto the parchment paper lined cookie sheets.

Top each mound with a teaspoon-sized portion of the peanut-butter dough.

Now top again with the chocolate dough mixture that you set aside.

Flatten slightly with a fork.

Bake for about 15 minutes, reversing your pans about half-way through. Let them cool on the sheets for a minute or so until they are firm enough to transfer to a rack.