Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Best part about these cookies? Except for the butter, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips, they're HEALTHY! Ok, not really healthy, exactly. But I took the original recipe and substituted some of the ingredients with healthier options.

To start, I got the original recipe from the back of a chocolate chip bag. Ryan and I love to eat chocolate chips straight from the freezer. That's where I keep them, in the freezer. My mom kept them in the freezer, so that's what I do, even though I really don't know why!

Our favorite kind of chocolate chips are Market Pantry Semi-Sweet. In case any of you live in a cave and don't know this, Market Pantry is Target's store brand. They are delicious! On the bag it says "rich & creamy" and boy are they right! They are better than any other brand name ever and I know this because I have tried every single chocolate chip brand ever in the whole world.

Here it is with my alterations:

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated Splenda (or store brand equivalent)
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp packed Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 2-1/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 pkg (6 oz.) Market Pantry Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 pkg (5 oz.) Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Beat butter, both sugars, and vanilla on medium speed until creamy. Beat in eggs until light and fluffy.

3. Blend in flour, soda and salt on low speed until mixed. Stir in chocolate and peanut butter chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2-inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

4. Bake 7 minutes or until top of cookie is slightly firm to touch. Cool on baking sheet 2 minutes; remove to wire racks.

Now, before you go and make these cookies, there are just a couple things you need to know about baking with Splenda instead of sugar.

Cookies made with Splenda don't turn golden brown like regular cookies. That's why "bake until edges are golden brown" doesn't work as one of the steps--because the edges don't get brown.

Cookies--and other baked goods--made with Splenda also bake faster than those made with sugar. Therefore, when the directions said to bake 8 to 11 minutes, I set the microwave timer for 7 minutes. After 7 minutes, the cookies were baked perfectly and ready to be taken out of the oven. My general rule is to set the alarm for a minute or two before the shortest baking time recommended, then I check them to see if they need more time and adjust my timer accordingly.

Another thing about these cookies is that while I was stirring in the chocolate and peanut butter chips, I was finding that the chips were being mixed throughout the dough, but not really getting mixed into the dough. I don't know if that makes sense, but basically if I tried to use a spoon to scoop out the dough onto the baking sheet, it would have all fallen apart instead of staying in a nice little round ball. So instead I used my hands to mold the dough into tablespoon-size balls to place on the baking sheet.

Lastly, these cookies will not flatten. The baking soda helps them rise a little bit, but after the first dozen came out of the oven, I found that if I flattened the balls and molded them into a normal cookie shape before I baked them, they came out looking like regular cookies instead of cookie balls. That sounds weird. Whatever.

Enjoy!