Peanut butter choc chip cookies

On Thursday evenings I volunteer with Swindon Young Carers - 12-18 year olds whose lives are affected by looking after someone in their family. For two hours each week we have a big house filled with 20-30 young people having a break from home and getting the chance to just be kids.
 
Most weeks you'll find me in the kitchen, with a few of them helping me to turn out something tasty for everyone else.

But it's a challenge. By the time things get started, I've probably got 60 minutes from start to finish. Sometimes we've been quite ambitious with the timescales (cake pops and banoffee pies spring to mind) but it's more practical to stick to something simpler like cupcakes, tray bakes and sausage rolls. And of course biscuits.

For me anyone new to baking should start with biscuits, as they're quick, everything goes in one bowl and it's quite difficult to get them wrong.

Whatever I make with the Young Carers, there's always a bit of 'eurgh I hate that!' from someone and when I said we were making peanut butter cookies there was even more than usual. However, even the people who swore they hated peanut butter really loved these nutty, chocolatey, slightly salty biscuits.

Ingredients:

100g butter at room temperature
80g caster sugar
90g dark muscavado sugar
1 medium egg
185g crunchy peanut butter
210g flour
1 tsp baking powder
130g small chocolate chips

How to make it:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/gas 4 and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

2. Cream the butter together with both sugars until pale and fluffy.

3. Add the egg and mix well, then stir in the peanut butter.

4. Sift together the baking powder and the flour and then stir them into the mixture. If the dough is too wet, gradually add more flour until you have a dough which comes together and isn't sticky. You may need to use your hands at this point.

5. Add the chocolate drops to the bowl and knead them gently into the dough making sure they're evenly distributed.

6. Roll the dough into ping ping sized balls and place on the baking sheet, flattening slightly.

7. Bake for 15-20 mins or until just golden brown - you still want them a bit moist in the middle.

8. Allow to cool on a cooling rack.