Peanut Butter Cookies

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I love peanut butter and one of my guilty pleasures is a spoonful right from the jar.  I am not picky either creamy or chunky is fine by me.  It is funny that I enjoy it so much because I am not a fan of the actual nut on its own.  What I like about these peanut butter cookies is that they taste like peanut butter as well they are light and buttery, almost like a shortbread cookie.

It has been years since I have had a really good peanut butter cookie.  Except for an occasional girl scout cookie.  I made peanut butter cookies in years either.  The reason for not making a good old fashioned peanut butter cookies is because most of the recipes take a lot of time.  As in hours of chilling before baking.  Not sure about you but when a cookie craving hits me I do not have hours to wait.  I need instant gratification.

I was getting ready to bake my nephew a box of cookies for his birthdays and decided to mix it up a bit as I usually bake him chocolate chip cookies.  A few important things for me was to create a recipe that couple be baked sooner than later, so off to work I went.  The first couple of times I made this recipe I used a natural brand of peanut butter and found that it was too oily and the cookies fell apart even when chilling the dough.  As well I felt like the chunky versions were too chunky.  I wanted a smooth and buttery cookie.  The peanut butter for this recipe is a classic creamy one, and I found that for an organic brand  Justin’s worked the best.  Jiffy also worked really well if you don’t want to go organic. 

Tips:

• To chill or not to chill?  I was able to bake these cookies right out of the mixing bowl but found they were a bit firmer if I chilled the dough 30 minutes.  I did not go any longer than 30 minutes and it worked well for me.
• Another tip is to flour the fork lightly before imprinting the top of the cookies this little step prevents the fork from sticking and ruining the classic peanut butter cookie design.  

Yield: 29 cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies

Print

This buttery peanut butter cookie is similiar to a shortbread cookie. A litte sugar sprinkled on top before baking adds a little crunch.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 16 minutes

Additional Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 6 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

In a large bowl whisk the dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt). Set aside.
Combine peanut butter along with the butter in the bowl of a mixer and beat for 1 minute on medium-low speed.
Add both sugars, mix until combined, about 1 minute, on medium-low speed.
Add the egg and mix well, about 30 seconds. Add the vanilla and mix for another 30 seconds
Add the dry ingredients and mix on a low speed so the flour does not fly out of the bowl; mix for 1 minute.
Place the dough into the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375.
Line a cookie baking sheet with parchment paper.
Using a small cookie scoop (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) scoop dough onto the baking sheet evening spaced a part. I put 9 - 12 scoops depending on the size of my baking sheet. Do not let the dough touch.
Dip a fork into a little flour and lightly press the dough down to indent. Sprinkle a small amount of sugar on top of the cookie.
Bake for 14 - 16 minutes until golden brown. The timing depends on how hot your oven runs.
Let the cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes, then move to a cooling rack.

Notes

I use Justin creamy peanut butter but Skippy and Jiff also work very well. Use butter with at least 85% fat content.

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