Peanut Butter Cookies

As I continue to catalog the ingredients for my 101 recipe challenge (see original post), which is taking much, much longer than I originally thought it would, I am trying to continue to make recipes to keep myself on a pace of at least 2 a week to make my deadline of August 3rd.  I will have to make 3 dishes during some weeks, but until I get ahead of myself in preparation, 2 should keep my head above water.

I had originally planned, and purchased ingredients for, Senate Bean Soup but life has gotten in the way a bit and I haven't had the time needed to prepare and enjoy the soup.  Sure, I could have made it at 10:30 at night, but that's not the best time to have dinner.  I had planned to make it over the weekend, but instead I had the opportunity to make a dessert for a football party at a friends house (Go Pack Go).  I chose to make recipe 84 - Peanut Butter Cookies.

This recipe for peanut butter cookies was pretty standard (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, brown sugar, butter, eggs, peanut butter, vanilla) and it took me about an hour and a half to make a batch.

The recipe first calls for whisking together the flour, baking powder and salt and setting aside.

Next, using an electric beater, I combined the sugars and butter, beating until fluffy (about 3 minutes).  First - 3 minutes seemed like an awful long time, and second, I'm not sure if I would have classified the result I got as "fluffy".  Mine ended up more like the consistency of wet sand.  Honestly, I probably could have made mud pies out of it.  Delicious, buttery mud pies, but mud pies none the less.

 

 I then added the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly adding each.  Then the peanut butter and vanilla, beating until they were combined.

Taking a tablespoon, I took the dough and made dough balls that ended up being about 1 1/2" in diameter.  I placed them on the cookie sheet with 2" separating the dough balls and pressed them with a fork making a criss cross pattern.

Off they then went into my semi-faithful oven, preheated to 350 degrees for 12 minutes, with a rotation of the tray halfway through the cook time.  The recipe called for parchment paper, which I did not have, so I cut the bake time by a minute to make sure they didn't get too browned on the bottom.

As the cookies came out of the oven, I couldn't keep them in the kitchen.  As soon as they were even close to cool, my wife and kids started to grab one whenever they walked though and I'm sure that they made a few extra trips.  The cookies were nice and chewy, with a peanut butter flavor that was satisfying, but not overpowering.  The cookies had a little bit of buttery flake on the edges, a little like a pie crust.  The recipe I usually make calls for a dusting of granulated sugar on the dough balls prior to pressing with a fork, so these cookies were slightly less sweet than I would have liked.  Kim (my wife) rated them 7.5 out of 10.  A Hershey's kiss planted in the center of the cookie would have probably landed me a 10 (her all time favorite Christmas cookie is the Peanut Butter kiss).

My Peanut Butter Cookies

Saveur Peanut Butter Cookies

The only issue that I really had with the cookies was in the days after I made the cookies.  They dried out a bit and became really crispy - almost like shortbread cookies.  They didn't taste any worse, but I am more of a fan of chewy cookies than crisp cookies.  It may have been due to not having the parchment paper, or possibly just how these cookies "age".  Maybe they don't usually last that long.

Another idea for these would have been to make a Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwich by slathering on some strawberry preserves and finishing up with a second cookie.  Mmm...will have to try that next time.

I'd love to get your favorite Peanut Butter Cookie trait, story or obsession.  Feel free to post!

I've picked a few recipes and ingredients for the next week - in no particular order: Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic, Senate Bean Soup, Egg Cream Soda, Spaghetti Carbonara and Elvis Presley's Pound Cake.

I will also post some interim items based on the fun things I find during the cataloging process (like the inordinate amount of eggs and onions I will be using) and the planning process.

Two down, ninety-nine to go!