This stuff is good. This stuff is GREAT. This stuff is what dreams are made of!!!

*takes deep breath* Okay, let’s get into it:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) soft butter
• A heaping 1/4 cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky, you do you)*
• 1 cup brown sugar (both light and dark are fine, I use dark)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1T vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups flour–baked, cooled, and sifted (see below for the process)
• 1t salt (let’s call this “salt to taste” because I used 2 teaspoons.         I love salt)
• Mix-ins (I used M&Ms and sprinkles. See below for quantities and other ideas)
• A 350ºF oven
• A sheet tray (it’s easiest to line this with foil or parchment paper)

*************************************************************************************

Spread the 2 1/4 cups of flour into an even layer on the lined sheet tray (if you don’t line it that’s okay, but it’s much easier to line it). Bake at 350ºF for 5 minutes to kill all of those little microorganisms that like to live in flour. Don’t eat raw flour. Once it’s cool, sift** it into a bowl and set that aside.

Cream the butter, peanut butter, and sugars until nice and fluffy. Add the vanilla and whip it up a little more.

Mix in the (baked, cooled, and sifted) flour and the salt.

Now, the fun part. The mix-ins! I used 1 cup of M&Ms and 1/2 a cup of sprinkles. You’re looking for about 2 total cups of mix-ins. You can add chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, toffee bits, crushed pretzels, crunched potato chips, chocolate covered caramels, Oreos or Biscoff cookies (or any crushed cookies!), maybe graham crackers and mini marshmallows with chopped Hershey bars! Cereal! I don’t even care! It’ll be amazing. Add anything that you like.

Oh! Add nuts, instant oats, and dried fruit if you’re feeling healthy. If you add oats and the dough is a little dry, mix in a few splashes of milk until it’s *moist* (sorry).

Once you’ve added everything in your pantry to the dough, enjoy!

*If you don’t want to add peanut butter, you don’t have to! You can add Nutella! Cookie butter! You can omit it entirely and add 2-3T of whole milk or heavy cream instead! Have fun. Make what you like.

If it’s Christmastime, use Nutella, mini chocolate chips, and crushed candy canes! Festive.

**Please sift your baked flour. I NEVER sift anything, but it will clump and leave you with hunks of flour if you don’t sift it. Sift your baked flour.