Peanutty Chocolate Half Baked Cookies

• 2 ¼ cups All Purpose Floor
• 1 ½ tsp. Unsweetened Coco Powder
• 1 tsp. Baking Powder
• ½ tsp. Salt
• 1 cup Light Brown Sugar
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 1 cup Vegetable Shortening
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1 ½ cups Milk Chocolate-Chips
• ¼ cup Crushed Salted Peanuts
• ½ cup Peanut Butter

This recipe was inspired from a cookbook I bought a few weekends ago called 501 Cookie Recipes. The author has three or four base cookie recipes in the front of his book so that you can invent your own cookie recipes. This recipe is a variation I made on one of his Cookie-base recipes.

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large mixing bowl mix together all dry ingredients excluding the chocolate chips. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and set aside. In a small mixing bowl combine the vegetable shortening, eggs, vanilla extract, and peanut butter. Whip together wet ingredients until mixture is smooth with few lumps. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients' well and fold together. Add chocolate chips in last and fold into dough. Roll cookie dough onto lightly floured surface about ¼ of an inch thick and use a 2 inch round cookie cutter.

Bake 10-14 minutes. Cookies should be a light mocha color slightly darker than chocolate chip cookies with similar texture. Let cookies cool for 5 mins. on wire rack. Makes about three dozen cookies.

• Topping (Optional) ½ bag Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

I like to cover half the top of these cookies with semi-sweet chocolate. I melt the chocolate in a double-boiler over medium-low heat. I then take a knife and spread the chocolate over the top of half of the cookie and let them cool in the freezer for about 5 minutes. The chocolate is a nice contrast with the chewiness of the cookie.