This Sunday's selection from Baked Occasions is another twist on an old-fashioned cookie recipe: soft and chewy peanut butter cookies with butterscotch chips added to the mix. They promise to break up the monotony of tired, same-old peanut butter cookies with a little something extra.
I went through a phase towards the end of high school where I made peanut butter white chocolate chip cookies pretty routinely. I liked the combination of the salty peanut butter paired with the sweet white chocolate, plus I was trying to impress a boy who had told me they were his favorite cookie. I got tired of the combination after a while, and I imagine he did too, although he never complained about them (it wasn't creepy I swear - we were dating). To me, these peanut butter butterscotch cookies are pretty similar in concept.
I already have a peanut butter cookie recipe I love and am unlikely to ever part with (from Ovenly), but I am always happy to try a new cookie recipe. I made these last year, but I used almond butter instead of peanut butter and Toll House butterscotch chips. I think I was out of peanut butter and figured they should be similar enough. Honestly, it's pretty rare for me not to like a cookie I've made, both because they are homemade and because I don't choose to make things I won't like.Β The version with almond butter and Toll House butterscotch? Awful. Sickeningly sweet, not well-balanced, very little almond flavor, slightly greasy, and generally not a cookie I would eat again. I take full responsibility for those failed cookies though - it wasn't the gentleman bakers' fault that I substituted in a different nut butter and I know Toll House's butterscotch chips to be a little too artificially butterscotch-y for my liking.
For my second attempt at Baked's peanut butter butterscotch cookies, I used Skippy creamy peanut butter and Ghiradelli butterscotch chips. These cookies were completely different from the bombs I have made before. Luxuriously soft and chewy, with crispy edges, not overly sweet, they were exactly what I've come to expect from a Baked recipe. These peanut butter butterscotch cookies are pretty simple to make; you add the peanut butter to the creamed butter, but otherwise the method looks just like your standard chocolate chip cookie recipe. Whip butter, add peanut butter, whip again to incorporate, add the sugars and cream, add the egg and vanilla and beat together, stir in the dry ingredients, then fold in the butterscotch chips. 
Start to in the oven, these will take about 25 minutes. My dough was really, really soft, so I left it in the fridge to firm up before I scooped it out into dough balls. I had a little trouble with the sea salt not sticking to the tops of the dough balls, but just pressed a few grains into the top and called it good. Matt and Renato suggest baking for 10-11 minutes total, with a pan rotation in the middle. I baked mine for 10 minutes per tray, and would only recommend a minute longer if you like crunchy cookies.
Although they won't replace my Ovenly peanut butter cookies, but these cookies are certainly a refreshing twist on the classic. I brought these into work together with the Old-school Oatmeal Cookies and both twists-on-a-classic were big hits. Find the recipe on Baked Sunday Mornings and see how the other bakers liked these.
