Classic Peanut Butter Cookies

I owe you an apology, baker.

I haven’t made peanut butter cookies for years (such shame! such horror!), despite having “Coming soon… Classic Peanut Butter Cookies” in the cookie section of the Recipe Index page for about two whole years. Good intentions? Yeah well, you know what they say about those.

What was wrong with me to have waited this long? It’s not like I’ve shied away from PB. I’ve made pies, candies, cakes, tarts, pots, bars, breads and balls stuffed with peanut butter. Was the cookie too simple, too unfun? Was I on some sort of PB high horse? I need to do some serious and deep soul searching. But in the meantime- don’t do what I did. Don’t wait. Because life is too short to not eat the classics.

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar (plus 1/2 cup extra for rolling dough in before baking)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt
1. Preheat oven to 375º and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, shortening, butter, sugars, egg and vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients and add to wet mixture until incorporated. Chill for about 2 hours or until firm.
4. Scoop dough into 1 1/2″ balls and roll in a small dish of sugar to coat. Place about 3″ apart on prepared sheet, and press a fork into surface of dough in a crisscrossing pattern.
5. Bake 9-10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 5 minutes on a wire rack before removing from cookie sheet to finish cooling.
Tips:
- Feel like using chunky peanut butter? Do it! You could also make this recipe (with smooth PB) and sprinkle peanuts over the top of the cookies before baking, if you want a bit of a crunch.
- Prefer softer cookies? Bake them for 7-8 minutes.
- Prefer crunchy cookies? That’s right- a few minutes more.
- These freeze like a champ. Yummy… cookies… in a week or so after you’ve forgotten about them… waiting in the freezer to be thawed in the microwave for a few seconds until a teeny bit warm…
- Enjoy!
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February 21st, 2015 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: Cookies, Peanut Butter