Peanut Butter Cookies

A number of years ago I made these cookies for a family reunion and found out that they were one of my Aunt Louise’s favorite cookies….so every time I go to her house I bake them just for her…..and every one else also gets to enjoy them. This year my cousin Elaine said you need to put these on your blog….so I am feeling the pressure 🙂

I have tried a number of peanut butter cookie recipes, but by far this is my favorite. They have a nice rich peanut flavor…not too sweet. In fact they border on healthy or at least that is what our friend Gary says.

This recipe I got from The Best Recipe Cookbook published by Cooks Illustrated.

To me the secret ingredients that make these cookies exceptional are the chopped roasted peanuts and chunky peanut butter. They might be a little more work, but are worth the effort. You chop a cup of peanuts and add them to the batter at the end.

Once the batter is prepared I use my 2 tablespoon scope and place them on the cookie sheet. I then use the tines of a fork and press a crisscross design on them.

Here is the recipe:

Peanut Butter Cookies:

Make about 3 dozen cookies

These cookies have a strong peanut flavor that comes from extra-crunchy peanut butter (in our taste test we preferred Jif) as well as from roasted salted peanuts that are ground in a food processor and worked into the dough. In our testing, we found that salted butter brings out the flavor of the nuts. If using unsalted butter, increase the salt to one teaspoon.

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ pound (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup extra-crunchy peanut butter, preferably Jif at room temperature
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup roasted salted peanuts, ground in food processor to resemble bread crumbs, about 14 pulses

Adjust ovens rack to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350⁰ Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in medium bowl; set aside.
Beat butter until creamy. Add sugars; beat until fluffy, about three minutes with electric mixer, stopping to scrape bowl as necessary. Beat in peanut butter until fully incorporated, then eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Gently stir dry ingredients into peanut butter mixture. Add ground peanuts; stir gently until just incorporated.
Working with 2 generous tablespoons each time, roll dough into 2 inch balls. Place balls on parchment-lined cookie sheets, leaving 2 ½ inches between each ball. Press each dough ball twice with dinner fork dipped in cold water to make crisscross designs.
Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking time (from top to bottom racks and back to front), until cookies are puffed and slightly brown along edges but not on top, 10 to 12 minutes. Cookies will not look fully baked. Cool cookies on cookie sheet until set, about 4 minutes, then transfer to wire rack with wide spatula to cool completely.

Printable version of recipe: peanut-butter-cookies (PDF)

Did I mention these are one of my favorite cookies? 🙂