10-minute Cookie

I've been pretty busy lately with my regular job and my photography business. I love it and things have been great - I'm still cooking, and I have a backlog of recipes and projects to post that I'm hoping to get to soon.

Last week it was the 5-ingredient appetizer and this week, its the 10-minute cookie :) Recently my husband decided to become an EMT. In our area, in order to become an EMT, you have to become part of the local firehouse, attend the meetings, take the class, etc. Once a month, they have a large meeting and someone brings food. Well, as the new guy - guess who got the job? And, as the new guy's wife, guess who got then got that job?

I totally didn't mind, but I wanted to make something good and filling - so I turned to the classic baked ziti. It was really easy and a crowd-pleaser. I also wanted to send him with a dessert but I didn't have time to make my favorite chocolate-chip cookies or cupcakes, so I turned to this seemingly ridiculously-easy-to-the-point-of-almost embarrassment recipe I noticed in the Kraft magazine (you know, the free one that you can sign up for online). These cookies have 4 ingredients (all of which are common to your pantry), take 2 minutes to mix, and 7 minutes to bake. Here's to hoping that none of those firemen are gourmet chefs :)

Much to my amazement - they were awesome! Like brownies but cookies - really dense, super moist but with a little bit of a crispy top. Perfect weeknight cookie that you can dress up for a party. I'll link the original recipe below which is what I made for the firehouse (I should mention that no cookies came back home with Tim), but last night I made them again a bit differently to see how they fared. Check it out!

Soft & Chewy 10-minute Cookie (peanut butter/vanilla version; here is the link to the chocolate version/original recipe by Kraft)

Ingredients
1 package french vanilla cake mix
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup reduced fat peanut butter
2 eggs
~1/2 cup peanut butter chips
Granulated sugar

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Mix all ingredients (except chips/sugar) with an electric mixer about 2 minutes or until a soft consistent dough forms. Stir in peanut butter chips.

3. Form small balls (about 1-1.5 inch diameter) and place on parchment-lined sheet pan. Make sure to leave a bit of space between cookies.

4. Dip fork in granulated sugar and create criss-cross pattern on each cookie.

5. Bake for 7-8 minutes - cookies won't really brown at all on the top, but bottoms will. If you wait for tops to brown, they will be overcooked.

6. Remove from oven, cool on wire rack and Enjoy!

These cookies taste like really good peanut butter cookies, but more chewy and a bit less peanut butter intensity - they were even better the next day! What could be easier? You can also totally change up the recipe. Add whatever mix-ins you like - mini M&M's, or walnuts, or chocolate chips. Change the cake mix flavors too.