Preheat your oven to 350°F/175°C and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Place a rack in the middle of the oven.
In a medium bowl with a hand mixer, or in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the peanut butter and butter together until smooth.
Add in your sugar and light brown sugar and mix again for 1 minute, or until smooth and creamy. Add in your egg yolk and vanilla extract and combine once more.
Stop the mixer and fold in the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda and salt, by hand until there are no more streaks of flour. Fold in your peanut butter chips. Note, this cookie dough is a little bit dry but it will come together!
Use a cookie scoop or tablespoon to scoop out 2 tablespoons of dough. Use your hands to bring the dough together into a ball and roll in between your palms. Roll the cookie dough ball in the extra ¼ cup of sugar. Place on your prepared baking sheet and use a fork to create a criss cross pattern. Be gentle as these cookies are delicate! Repeat with the rest of the cookie dough.
Bake for 9-10 minutes. Once you take them out of the oven, let them cool on the baking sheet.
Notes
My recipes have been developed and tested in metric grams and cups. I highly recommend using a weighing scale and measuring out your ingredients the metric way. Just click on ‘Metric’ above the ingredients. Butter: I use European style butter, like Kerry Gold, in my recipes. This will make your finished bake much creamier and richer.Salt: If you don’t have kosher salt, halve the amount of salt called for in the recipe. 1 teaspoon kosher salt = ½ teaspoon fine salt.Peanut Butter: use commercial peanut butter, not natural peanut butter which has oil on the top. If you use natural peanut butter it will completely change the texture of the cookies. Storage: keep the baked cookies in an airtight container for up to a week at room temperature.