Recipe: Peanut Butter Cookies

Recently my niece Sara asked for this one, this is the same recipe I used for the cookies at the cafe.


Peanut Butter Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter, soft
• 1/2 cup peanut butter, smooth or chunky
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients well in large mixer bowl.  This is called 'creaming', when the sharp sugar crystals cut the fats in the butter and peanut butter before dissolving.  The mixture should be completely smooth, with no bits of un-mixed butter and a uniform color.

In a smaller bowl, mix together:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

You can put these through a sifter if you're ambitious, I get them all into the bowl and use my (clean) fingers to mix it up and break up any clumps.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in two additions, keep the mixer on a lower speed and mix only until the dough has come together smoothly.  Add cookie drops now if you're so inclined and refrigerate the dough for at least an hour.

Drop dough onto a baking sheet using a spoon (!) or a disher.  Dishers are just glorified ice cream scoops that come in a variety of sizes and well worth the small investment at the restaurant supply house.  Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 8 - 12 minutes, keep an eye out.  Let cool completely on a rack before serving.  Makes approximately three dozen cookies.

VARIATIONS

I like to add chocolate chips to the dough, but peanut butter chips are also awesome as are a mix of the two.  You can make PB&J cookies by making an impression with your thumb or back of a spoon (!) on each unbaked cookie drop.  Put a dab of your favorite jelly in the impression and bake.  Peanut Butter Kisses are hugely popular, this idea came from my grandmother but back in the day, Hershey Kisses were larger and you only needed one per cookie.  You might need two Kisses, depending on the size of cookie you are making, but make sure the appropriate amount is unwrapped when the tray comes out of the oven.

Firmly press the bottom of the Kiss into the top of each cookie right when the come out of the oven and allow to cool.