Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)

So one of my friends is GF, DF and I remember last year for her birthday, we had a hard time finding some sort of treat we could stick a candle into that she would enjoy. So this year, I thought I'd try out these cookies because any excuse to bake is a good excuse to bake. I followed the Five-Ingredient Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe from Blue Apron. Recipe is copied and pasted below. Overall they were quite easy to put together and were eaten in a flash. In fact, the DH requested his own batch (poor thing only had half of one from the first batch as I made slightly bigger cookies and there wasn't enough to keep).

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1 cup creamy peanut butter
¾ cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg
½ cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, combine the first 4 ingredients together. Then, stir in the chocolate chips.

Using your hands, form the dough into golf-ball-sized balls (approximately 1 1/2 inches) and place onto a baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until browned.

Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Then, using a spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely

Makes 12-14 cookies.

MY NOTES:

1. I used skippy "natural" no stir peanut butter for the first batch. For the second batch, I finished up the no stir peanut butter but also added some of the TJ's crunchy peanut butter that really requires stirring. I didn't pull out a measuring cup for the peanut butter, I just eyeballed it and I was completely fine. 

2. Eight to nine minutes is really enough. The first batch had slightly larger cookies, and nine minutes was all it took.

3. They don't spread very much. If you place them on the tray in all their rounded glory, they become a little poofy, but do sink a bit when they cool. If you flatten them, they spread a little more, and look a lot like a normal chocolate chip cookie. 

4. I used Guittard semi sweet chips, and probably was more generous than half a cup. Also, dark brown sugar made no difference. 

5. These were good warm from the oven, and good the next day. Very soft and moist. My hope is to try this recipe out with fresh peanut butter to see if I can get it to have a more "peanut buttery" taste.

6. I added a splash of vanilla because why not?

Yum!

The cross section of one of the cookies from the first batch!

The second batch is below. I don't know if it's because of the mix of peanut butters but they turned out slightly darker.