Sunday, May 20, 2007

By Popular Demand

When I posted the recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies a while back, it was suggested that I post my peanut butter cookie recipe as well. Since I'm low on original recipes these days (I am beset by frequent cravings for macaroni & cheese - it's a darn good recipe, but not mine), this seems like a good time to put up a new dessert. Plus, it's got peanut butter in it, so I know it will be popular with a certain portion of my demographic.
The key to the peanut butter cookie is a) lots of salt and b) lots of peanuts - thus, it is recommended to use salted butter AND salted peanuts AND extra crunchy peanut butter. I also prefer dark brown sugar to light brown, but use what you've got.

Peanut Butter Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup salted peanuts
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup extra-crunchy peanut butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In a food processor, chop the peanuts until they are approximately the consistency of bread crumbs (about 15 seconds on the closest setting you have to "grind"). Set aside.
Mix together the butter and sugars until creamy. Beat in the peanut butter, then mix in the eggs (one at a time) and vanilla. Fold in the dry ingredients. Finally, stir in the ground peanuts until well combined.
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper (or use a silpat). Taking approximately 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll dough into balls and place on the cookie sheet. Use a fork to make a cross-hatch pattern on the top of each cookie (tip: rinse the fork with warm water every 3-4 cookies). Bake 11-12 minutes, until the cookies are brown on the edges - they won't look done, but they'll finish cooking out of the oven. Let the cookies cool on the sheet about 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes 3 dozen cookies.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mmm... Can I leave out the actual peanuts so that my family will eat these cookies. While they love peanut butter, they're not so enthused about actual nuts.

Of course I could just bake them this way and then I have an excuse to eat them all.

J. Bowman said...

If you grind them up well enough, you'll never notice the actual nuts are in there - any large chunks are coming from the peanut butter.
That said, I think you could probably leave out the peanuts, and use creamy peanut butter, though the result will be less peanut-y. You might want to add more flour in that case, or you could throw in chocolate chips - otherwise, the dough will be too creamy, and the results will be sub-optimal.

Michelle said...

Oooh, thanks!! This sounds awesome!