Peanut butter cookies

This recipe came from my deceased Aunt Linda.  It is far and away the best peanut butter cookie I’ve ever tasted.  I hope you think so too.

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Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter (The real thing, please!  If using salted butter omit salt.)
1 18 oz jar crunchy peanut butter (Yes, you’re reading this right.  Linda used creamy pb; I like crunchy.)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup peanut butter chips (Optional...Linda didn’t use these.  I don’t think they existed back then.)

Directions
Cream together the butter, peanut butter and both sugars. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. 

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In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Stir into batter.  Dough will be stiff.  At this point you can just eat the entire bowl of batter with your fingers, but if the kids are whining for cookies, you’ll probably have to save some back for baking.

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Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  Roll into 1 inch balls and put on baking sheets. Flatten each ball with a fork, making the classic peanut butter cookie criss-cross pattern. Wetting the fork with warm water for each cookie makes it easier because the fork won’t stick.  Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 8-11 minutes or until cookies begin to brown. Do not over-bake.  If you like your cookies soft, bake only until they set: 9-10 minutes.  They’ll look not quite baked when you remove them from the oven.  Carefully move to a cooling rack because they will fall apart until they’re completely cool.  Makes anywhere from 2-4 dozen depending on the size of your cookies.  These cookies spread so roll the cookie balls on the smaller side.

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There’s just the two of us so I usually roll the chilled dough into logs and then freeze them.  Roll it with waxed paper so it doesn’t stick.  If you wrap it really well in plastic wrap, then in foil and then put it in a Ziplock bag, this will keep frozen just about forever.

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I just cut off a few pieces of frozen dough (Use dental floss to make clean cuts--the unflavoured kind please.), thaw it right on the cookie sheet and bake a few cookies so I can have fresh, warm cookies anytime I feel like having some.  I keep some of the fresh dough in a covered bowl in the fridge.  Refrigerated, it will keep for a week or more.

Posted by Donna on Wednesday, April 08, 2009 at 02:32 PM
Filed in: Cookies • ◊ Permalink
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