Peanut butter and strawberry jam are two mainstays for toast in our house. And, so are chocolate chip cookies. Now you can enjoy ALL these flavors in a PB&J cookie combined with chocolate chips inside and chocolate buttercream garnished with strawberry jam.
It’s kind of like a cross between chocolate covered strawberries with a PB&J sandwich. And what better way to enjoy them together than in an oversized cookie? It’s a mouthful of flavors for your taste buds.
This recipe will make two dozen cookies that bake to be about 5” in diameter.
Preheat your oven to 375F degrees.
Prep your baking sheet:
I line the large baking pans with parchment paper. Since I usually line up 6 of these gigantic balls of cookie dough on one cookie sheet, giving them plenty of room to spread out. So, it will take up to 4 large baking sheets to get all of the cookies done. If you don’t have 4 baking sheets and reuse them, remember to let them cool before you put more dough balls on them for baking.
Gather up your Ingredients:
1 C Brown Sugar
1 C Sugar
1 C Peanut Butter, creamy
1 C Butter, softened
2 Eggs, room temperature
1 T Vanilla extract
2 ¾ C Flour
1 t Baking powder
1 t Baking soda
1/4 t Salt
10-12 oz Chocolate chips, semi-sweet or dark chocolate, mini-chips work, too
1 C Strawberry jam or preserves for garnish
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
½ C Butter, soft
1/2 Shortening (top quality)
4 C Powdered sugar
2 t Vanilla extract
1 T Coffee, cold (optional, in place of milk)
2 T Milk
Make and bake your cookie dough:
- Beat the sugars, butter, peanut butter, vanilla extract and eggs together until well combined. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl so everything is properly incorporated. Set aside.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Slowly beat the dry ingredients into the peanut butter mixture, scraping down the sides and stirring up the bottom so all the dry ingredients are incorporated.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Seal the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least one-half hour or overnight in the refrigerator.
- Scoop and roll 18-24 dough balls and place on a parchment papered baking sheet. I use a medium cookie scoop to create even portions, then roll them with my hands.
- Bake at 375F degrees for 13-16 minutes, until barely golden brown. Since my oven bakes hotter in the rear, I rotate the cookie pan at the 10-minute mark. (I have even baked them at a lower 350F degrees for 13-16 minutes and they come out very nicely, too. Just make sure they are not wet looking on top.)
- Leave the cookies on the baking sheet until cooled. Don’t overbake the cookies since they will continue to bake on the cookie sheet.
Make the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
- With an electric mixer, beat the butter and shortening together for a fluffy consistency.
- Beat in the extract, coffee and 1 tablespoon milk, scraping down the sides often. You can eliminate the coffee the milk if you like. I personally like to include coffee since it enhances the chocolate flavor.
- Beat the buttercream until light and fluffy. The consistency should be soft enough to pipe but solid enough to hold its shape when piped.
- If the frosting is too thick, add a little more coffee or milk. If it’s too soft, add more powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Assemble your Giant PB&J Chocolate Chip Frosted Cookies:
- Making sure the cookies have completely cooled (I let them sit in the refrigerate for 15 minutes to make sure), spread the buttercream or pipe it onto the center of each cookie, leaving a space in the very middle of each cookie for the strawberry jam. The buttercream builds a dam to support the jam in the center of the cookie so it doesn’t spill off the sides.
- Garnish each giant cookie with a teaspoon of strawberry jam spooned into the center of each cookie.
- These cookies can sit in a covered container on the counter for a couple hours, but I usually leave them in the refrigerator to keep the jam from flooding off the cookie, especially in the summer.
Freezing options:
- I like to scoop the dough into large balls and freeze them. Then when I’m in the mood for PB&J, I thaw a few for 20 minutes and bake at the same temp and time as above. They last over a month in the freezer.
- I’ve also frozen the baked cookies before adding the buttercream and jam. Frost them with buttercream and jam after they thawed or enjoy them without. I am assuming they will last over a month in the freezer, but they usually have been devoured or taken to an outing before then.
These delicious cookies can take you back to the cozy morning flavors of PB&J toast so, “Bake your own Memories!”
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