I met Chef Josh Heiskell during his tenure as Chef at San Francisco’s Villa Taverna, a private fine dining club. He’s a wonderful chef. While he holidays around the world, he samples the best cuisines he can find and brings his fresh skills to our club. His work, his cooking, was exceptional and delicious.

This recipe is a slight modification of his recipe for Nutella Peanut Butter Cookies

When he’s not in the kitchen, Chef Josh can be found on Instagram.

All ingredients in grams (imperial equivalent in [ ])

**in grams**

190g butter (room temp) [13 Tablespoon and 1 teaspoon]

125g brown sugar [1 cups]

125g sugar [1 cups]

2.5g salt [1/2 teaspoon]

100g peanut butter (room temp) [6 Tablespoon and 1/2 teaspoon]

90 g Nutella (room temp) [6 Tablespoons]

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 T brandy or bourbon

—

1 egg

—

250g All Purpose flour [2 cups]

2.5 g baking soda [1/2 teaspoon]

—

2 cups Reese’s peanut butter chips

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven (no convection) to bake at 350°

Cream first 4 ingredients.

Add egg, incorporate fully.

Sift dry ingredients (flour and baking soda) and combine

Fold in chips. Do not over mix.

Form into a log with waxed paper, then roll in plastic wrap.

Chill for 4 hours before baking.

Slice rounds and place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet about 2 in. apart.

Bake at 375° preheated oven (or 350° convection) for 10-12 minutes, or until almost set.

Chef’s note: I prefer them a little underdone. That way they stay chewy.

** @june oven cookie setting plus 2 minutes is perfect.

Chef’s note: I prefer them a little underdone. That way they stay chewy.

Lessons from my Mother:

• Vanilla extract is your secret weapon for any sweet dessert.

• I used organic peanut butter, just because.

• When measuring dry goods, such as sugar and flour, never pack your measuring cup unless the instructions tell you to. Lightly spoon your ingredients into the correct measuring cup, and level with the back of a knife. This will ensure consistent and accurate measurements every time.

• Be careful with baking soda, even a tiny bit over the measure can give your baked goods a funny taste. Not enough will give you a soft cookie with no crunch.

• Creaming and sifting are important because they ensure all your ingredients are fully incorporated, preventing surprise flavors from showing up when eating, and they ensure even cooking. For example, you don’t want to bite into a tiny baking soda pocket in your cookie.

• I also prefer using parchment paper to butter when preparing my cookie sheets. It feels cleaner and I know my ingredients are exact.

• I like to use extra-large eggs in all my recipes because they give added richness.

The products I used in this recipe are:

• Clover Sonoma Organic Salted butter (it’s midnight, and coronavirus shelter in place rules mean that no stores are open and no one will deliver unsalted butter to me at this hour, so when using salted butter, I reduce my salt measurement to 1/4 teaspoon).

• Wholesome Mindfully Delicious Organic Dark Brown Sugar

• 365 Everyday Value Organic Cane Sugar

• MaraNatha Organic No Stir Peanut Butter, crunchy (it had been refrigerated, so I put it in the microwave with the lid off for 10 seconds).

• Arm & Hammer Pure Baking Soda (I wouldn’t know what else to use, it’s the only baking soda I see at the store, and it’s what my mother used when I was a child)

• Frontier Co-op Organic Vanilla Extract

• Hain Pure Foods Iodized Sea Salt

• Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips

• Nutella