Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe

Today has been a cool, windy, rainy day. Not much gardening happening (although I am pleased that the zinnia seeds I sowed are getting good and watered in) but instead it’s one of those afternoons where you just want to get cozy with a good book or a movie you can just sink into. I suddenly had a hankerin’ for some peanut butter cookies to go along with my relaxy time, so I whipped up this batch and put on a pot of coffee. Want the recipe? This is only slightly modified from the original found in Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book which is very good as is. However, I made mine with lots more vanilla, raw sugar, white whole wheat flour (whatever that is) and natural peanut butter which I think yielded a richer, denser, darker, sweet-peanut-buttery-yummy-goodness cookie.

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter – softened.

1/2  – 3/4 cup natural peanut butter (I like mine with chopped peanuts included)

1 1/4 cup unbleached white whole wheat flour (I like King Arthur brand)

1/2 cup raw sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed loosely)

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons (yes 2!) of the finest madagascar vanilla extract you can find

A smidgeon of extra sugar.

In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients with a mixer until blended. Roll pieces of dough into a ball about 1 1/2 – 2 inches wide. Dip each dough ball into extra sugar and flatten on a parchment-lined cookie tray with a fork in a criss-cross pattern. Bake at 375 degrees for about 7 minutes or until the edges are golden. Cool on a wire rack. This recipe yielded about 18 cookies.

EDIT: After stuffing myself on these yesterday I realized one thing I would do differently is dial back on the sugar. I don’t like things too sweet and the addition of the sugar on the top of those cookies made me think I could use less in the dough recipe. Obviously it wasn’t so much that I stopped eating them. 😉