These Milk Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookies are an easy slice and bake chocolate chip cookie and a to-die-for combination of peanut butter, chocolate chips, and shortbread!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies are one of my most popular recipes
I thought it would be fun to try the recipe with milk chocolate for a slightly different flavor profile. Truth is, I’ll take any excuse to play with chocolate and peanut butter, the results are always delicious!
Shortbread is Scottish in origin
In its classic form it’s a super simple dough made by rubbing butter and sugar into flour. For all its humble farmhouse origins, shortbread has a deliciously addictive melt in your mouth texture that is unmatched in the baking world.
In fact the flavor of plain shortbread is wonderful because you actually taste the butter and flour themselves, and it’s a wonderful recipe to know because you almost always have the ingredients on hand to make up a batch.
Shortbread and shortbread cookies have a unique texture
You can roll out shortbread dough for cut out cookies, you can pat it into a pan or a cast iron skillet, or you can form the dough into a log to slice and bake. Certain kinds of shortbread dough can be pressed into intricate molds. Shortbread is unlike most cookies in that it contains no added liquids or eggs. It keeps its shape while baking, and it bakes at a low temperature so it doesn’t brown.
Shortbread literally melts in your mouth!
My original cookies were formulated to be slice and bake, but for these I went for a sleeker look. I chilled the dough in a disk, like pie dough, and then rolled it to about 1/3 inch thickness and cut it out with a cookie cutter. You can see that even the tiny fluted edges of my cookie cutter held their shape after baking.
Tips for working with shortbread recipes
Shortbread dough requires that you really work in the soft butter and sugar into the flour. The butter must be truly soft. Since there are no added liquids, the moisture of the butter is what holds the dough together. It will start out dry and crumbly, but eventually the butter, sugar and flour become one dough. It helps to get right in there with your hands to finish the process.
Keep in mind that any shortbread can always be patted into a pan and cooked that way. It helps to cut the shortbread into squares while it is still warm.
try some of my other shortbread recipes…
- Butter Pecan Shortbread
- Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies
- Cornish Clotted Cream Shortbread
- Lemon Sugar Shortbread
Add The View from Great Island as a Trusted Google Source
Milk Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature, make sure it is completely soft
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter, yes, you can use chunky
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, yes, you can use regular sugar
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips, you can use mini chips if you like
Instructions
- Set oven to 350F
- Cream the butter and peanut butter together until thoroughly combined. Beat in the vanilla.
- Sift the sugar, flour and salt together and then add to the butter mixture. Mix until the dough comes together and is no longer dry and crumbly. A stand mixer helps with this job.
- Add the chocolate chips in towards the end of mixing and distribute evenly.
- Turn the dough out onto a board and continue to work it with your hands until it comes together like a pie dough. Divide it in two equal parts, and shape them into flat disks. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for about an hour.
- Roll out the chilled dough on a lightly floured surface to your desired thickness. I rolled mine to about 1/4-1/3 inch.
- Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for about 13-15 minutes. They will soft and white even when done, but will firm up as they cool.
- Let the cookies rest on the hot cookie sheet for a minute or two, and then transfer carefully to a cooling rack.
 Don’t forget to pin these Milk Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookies!
I made these a couple of days ago and my husband informed me that they are now his favorite cookie of all time. 🙂 I make at least a 12-15 different types of cookies each month, so that is really saying something. 🙂 The only difference is I used brown sugar. Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful recipe!!!
I noticed that you used brown sugar instead of white or confectioners…how much brown sugar did you use? thanks!
These are the BEST cookies ever. Every batch I have made have been gobbled up! So much for “keep in the fridge for a rainy day” ! 😀
So glad you like them, Tess!
Those cookies look delicious! Small batch baking is great, sometimes the dozens of cookies just doesn’t make sense!
All of my favorite ingredients in one cookie! Impossible to pass up.
I love so many shortbreads..way better than rich desserts:) I have made so many in my lifetime:)
I made yours around 3.30 this afternoon..my time..they are delish..
I made bite sized too..as I cannot resist:)
I love MILK chocolate..better than all chocolates..not a REAL chocolate lover..the deep dark kind my husband likes..pas pour moi.
I make shortbread every Christmas using my grandmother’s recipe. It is definitely a workout getting it all blended, but they taste so fantastic it is worth it. This year I changed things up a bit and added cranberries and orange and they were fantastic. Here is the link if you want to have a look: http://gracie-senseandsimplicity.blogspot.ca/2012/11/christmas-cookie-week-cranberry-orange.html. I’ve never thought about adding peanut butter to shortbread, but I can imagine it with the chocolate. I bet it tastes fantastic.
Yes I am a member of the universal club of peanut butter and milk chocoholics! These are beautiful cookies – really great idea Sue! Hope you have a terrific week of kitchen successes 🙂
i’m thinking a little peanut butter between two of your lovely cookies wouldn’t be a bad thing. 🙂
Now I know why I like you so much; we’re long lost shortbread sisters! I’m crazy about shortbread and I can’t believe I didn’t know it was shortbread day, Shame, shame on me. These look wonderful, maybe I could make up for my major faux pas by eating a double portion of your cookies, do you think? 🙂
Top Ten popular Female Singers in the World, Indian Singers, Pakistani Singers and American Singers hot News and Images
hotentertainnews.blogspot.com