Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are few things more delicious than cookies made for no reason at all. 

Last week, a friend from work asked if I could use up an almost full tub of almond butter in one weekend since the expiration date was that Monday. Um, challenge accepted. 

My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe is one my Mom clipped out of a newspaper forever and a day ago.I have no idea what it's called or who actually came up with it. Sorry. The best part about it is that it calls for 1 cup of peanut butter. Having regular chocolate chip cookies with no peanut better tastes weird to me now. I've been spoiled! Substituting the peanut butter with almond butter seemed like a delicious alternative, and somehow made the cookies seem more grown up. To match the adult(ish) switch to almond butter, I decided to use dark chocolate instead of the usual semi-sweet (so basically they're healthy now) and toffee bits (shhh... just let me believe they're healthy). 

You will need:

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups all purpose flour 

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup almond butter

2 eggs

1 cup soft butter 

2 cups mix-in of choice (used here are dark chocolate and toffee bits)

Preheat oven to 350. Cream together sugars, butter, and almond butter. Mix in eggs. Add combined flour and baking soda. 

Use a spoon to combine the mix-ins. It seemed like fun to experiment: the far left is just dark chocolate, the center is dark chocolate and toffee, the right is just toffee. Really, there was no way to loose.

Make fun of your friend a little for the large size of her cookie balls. Roll your own in 1 inch balls and place about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. 14-15 minutes for those more enthusiastically sized.

Leave them on the sheet a few minutes to firm up. If you move them while they are too hot they will fall apart, which is part of what makes them so delicious. Put them on a wire rack or paper towels to finish cooling.

Eat too many, force your friend to take some home, then bring them to work the next day because you don't need a massive plate of delicious cookies all by yourself.

Is there anything different about your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe? What other mix-ins would you want to try? I'd love to know.

Sheila

P.S. The one with both chocolate and toffee was my favorite, in case you're wondering. Although all 3 options were enjoyed.