Sunday, August 26, 2012

Good Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies

Yep, that's a cookie jar half full of joy, otherwise known as old-fashioned cross-fork peanut butter cookies.  This is the way my grandma and I used to bake them, and I don't know about you, but I think things taste better when I bake them myself.  So, if you've got a hankering for a yummy old fashioned cookie, these might be for you, just don't serve them to anyone with peanut allergies, capiche?

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter - crunchy or creamy, per your preference
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

In a large bowl cream butter and sugars, then add peanut butter, egg, and vanilla. Mix until well blended. Put dry ingredients on top, and mix them together before incorporating the dry ingredients into the wet ones.  You could have premixed them in another bowl, but I hate creating extra dishes to wash.  Mix all ingredients well and then pop the bowl into your refrigerator. No room in the fridge? Now's a great time to clean it out so you can make room.

While you're washing the dishes associated with cleaning out the fridge to make room for your peanut butter cookie dough, preheat oven to 375 degrees and make sure your pizza stone (I mean baking sheet, yeah, baking sheet... no, I mean pizza stone, because that's what I like my cookies baked on) is clean enough to bake cookies.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATION TIME- If you frequently host people with peanut allergies, always line your stone with parchment paper.

Okay, your stone is clean and ready to go, your oven is getting hot, your dough is getting cold, your dishes are getting clean, and by now you've fended off kids and or partners who want the noms now.  Clean off an area on your counter top and line it with paper towels to transfer the cookies onto when they come out of the oven and find your most sturdy spatula.

Oven's hot? Sweet. Pour about three inches of water into a cup and pull out a dinner fork, you know, the one with the longer tines. Put the fork in the water. Take the dough out of the oven and start balling up the dough. Place the balls (About 1 TBS in size, give or take) about 2" apart on baking stone.  With the wet fork press the criss-cross shape into the top of the cookies.  Redip the fork every few cookies to keep it from sticking.

Bake 10-11 minutes, then let sit out at least 3 minutes before carefully transferring to the paper towels via the thinnest, stiffest, spatula you can find, then ball up the rest of the dough and repeat.

Allow to cool completely before storing in your canister (yeah, like they're really going to make it to a cannister).

Yes, you can freeze these, no, I've never personally done so. Cookies don't last long in my household.

Happy eating!

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