Valentine’s Day in our house isn’t usually something too super mushy but a holiday we do note with hints of red and hearts. Since they say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, this year the girls and I whipped up some yummy Valentine’s cookies for their super dad and gifted them in a custom new cookie jar for Valentine’s Day! This recipe of soft and chewy peanut butter cookies makes a big batch so there’s plenty to gift for the holiday and enjoy for yourself!

DISCLOSURE: I was compensated with an item from Personalcreations.com for this post, but the opinions are all mine and not that of the company! Know that Spotofteadesigns.com only promotes products which have been personally use and I’d stand behind. To learn more, please review my disclosure policy here.

A typical Valentine’s day in the past included a bouquet of flowers from Derek (roses are fine but I love the mixed bouquets at Wegman’s even better) and a heart shaped homemade pizza for dinner for all. Since Derek has both work and his master’s class this Valentine’s Day where he won’t be home until the girls are in bed, we decided to celebrate this lovely day a little bit earlier.

The girls love to bake with me so we decided daddy needed some cookies. (It wasn’t hard to convince them of this idea!) As you can see, Hailey is now climbing on the kitchen chairs which makes these shots look a lot different from this baking session, right? I choose our favorite peanut butter cookie recipe since it’s a two part process which is great to do with toddlers for pre and post nap activities. Part 1 is making the dough and then it has to be refrigerated so the second part of baking can happen later.

Whenever I bake with the girls I always pre-measure my ingredients and put them in separate bowls. Yes, it creates more dishes but it stops the threat of a mistake in measuring, forgetfulness of an ingredient (#mommybrain), and also allows them to help pour the item in.

Since this recipe called for peanut butter as an ingredient, I let them both go to town licking that ingredient bowl once I poured it in.

This distracted them enough to continually lick the peanut butter bowl which meant I could peacefully pour the rest of the items in myself.

Once we refrigerated, balled them, smashed with a meat mallet (a toddler is helpful here) and sprinkled with sugar, they were ready to bake. MMMMMmmmm they were delicious! We, of course, had to sample them before Daddy got home that day!

To gift these yummy peanut butter cookies to their dad, we put some in our new photo treat jar from Personal Creations. I was able to add a few of our recent favorite shots to the front that I know will make him laugh or smile each time he sneaks a special treat.

And woohoo! It has an airtight lid to keep these cookies their soft and chewy selves! (PS if you love personalized gifts, check out their website and sign up on their email list as they always send discount codes, especially around holidays!)

Go ahead and make these soft and chewy peanut butter cookies for yourself but I warn you, they are addicting!

SOFT AND CHEWY PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

recipe makes approximately 4 dozen generously sized cookies

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups peanut butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• optional: colored sugars

1. Cream together butter, peanut butter and sugars. Beat in eggs and add vanilla.
2. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Put batter in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
3. Roll into 1 inch balls and put on baking sheets. Flatten each ball with a fork in a criss cross pattern. (We always use a meat mallet to do it in one step!) Sprinkle some colored sugars on top, if desired.
4. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven until cookies begin to brown. (For me, it’s usually around 9 minutes). Do not over bake! Tip: Leave on cookie sheet to cool a few minutes before putting on drying racks. These are super soft but also easy to break right out of the oven so leaving them on the sheet an extra minute helps solidify them.