This recipe has never, ever, evereverever failed me and I've often had to sort of squeeze by on ingredients. The measurements are easy to remember too!
1/2 cup of butter (usually a stick)
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
one egg
1 1/4 cups of flour
(optional: you can add nuts, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch ships, or other filler. My brother even used ham once......... (I do not claim responsibility for the results if you use ham.) Just put in as much as looks right!)
After you mix all the above in the above order in one bowl (one at a time), the dough shouldn't be too dry and crumbly but it also shouldn't be to oily or smooth. It should be lumpy and stick to itself, but also crumble a bit. This is ultimate peanut butter cookie material. But don't worry, whatever you have, if you added the ingredients correctly, it should turn out fine. If it's too wet, however, add some flour. If it's too dry, add vanilla or milk or even just a bit of water. Add small amounts at a time!
I have a nifty little gadget that looks like an ice cream scoop but far smaller for cookie dough and it works like a charm. If you don't have one of these, however, you can use regular table spoons. As they say in cookie recipes everywhere, "drop by rounded tablespoon onto cookie tray two inches apart." I recommend this for your first batch. After you know how much they'll flatten and spread out, you can just cram your cookie sheets as tight as they'll go. Usually, though, these cookies don't spread whilst baking in the oven.
Okay, so you've got your cookies on the cookie sheet. The signature of peanut butter cookies is to flatten them with a fork. Feel free! Another way, especially if you added "chips", is to leave them in a ball. Often times, if you don't over cook them, the ball form results in only partially cooked cookies, leaving the inside sweet, mushy, and with full flavor. Of course, this is a problem if you're worried about "egg poisoning", but just find eggs that are guaranteed not to have salmonella and it's super tasty. (Although you won't be able to flatten them completely with the chips in, flatten them best you can and the oven will take care of the rest. If, while you're flattening, you find the fork sticking in the cookies, unwilling to come out, console it by dipping it in sugar every few cookies. This not only acts like flour with bread dough, it leaves a nice, but thin, sugar blanket on top of the cookies. You could also do this with cinnamon.)
Whether you flatten them with a fork or leave them round, put them in the oven for nine minutes at 375. This is almost always long enough. If you find your cookies dripping over the edge of the sheet, well, silly, you need more flour! When nine minutes are up, test the cookies. You can do this several ways. You can scoop one up and pop it in your mouth, getting pieces of it everywhere and burning your hand, mouth, esophagus, etc. You can cut one open like a scientist to see if it's cooked to the core. You can try to lift it off the sheet with a spatula and fail. If you're an experienced baker, you could tell by the level of brown the cookie has become.
I recommend a different method, personally. I take my finger and gently press the edge of the cookie and lift if from the baking sheet ever so slightly. The cookie is light and fluffy, visually crinkles up a bit when you lift it, and it's just screaming, "I'M DONE!" If the edges are brown, they are definitely done. Usually, the best cookies are the ones that are just lightly tan all over - a nice even coat. Ideally, they will not be stiff. At least that's the goal. Let them cool on the cookie sheet for about two minutes and then slip your spatula under. If you waited just the right amount of time, the cookie will welcome the spatula and climb on willingly. Be careful during this period if you choose to move them to the cookie sheet - this is when they are in the prime and are ready to cool for best quality, but they will easily pull apart. Gently slide them onto a cooling rack. (If upon, tasting your work - if you did the rounded cookie - the inside is cooked against your will, decrease the time.)
Now, recipes always say "allow cookies to cool completely before storing" and this is generally a good idea. While eating them before they are completely cool is the best cookie-eating idea ever, the extra moisture cookies have before they are completely cool encourages, well, not only mold in the cookie jar but something far more likely - sogginess. (This sometimes happens when you mix cookies in the same jar too.) Cookies that have been sitting in their own sweat, if you will, do not taste their best.
Please enjoy these cookies. Eat each one slowly because, I bet you, they will not hang around long.
~Meggy
1/2 cup of butter (usually a stick)
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
one egg
1 1/4 cups of flour
(optional: you can add nuts, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch ships, or other filler. My brother even used ham once......... (I do not claim responsibility for the results if you use ham.) Just put in as much as looks right!)
After you mix all the above in the above order in one bowl (one at a time), the dough shouldn't be too dry and crumbly but it also shouldn't be to oily or smooth. It should be lumpy and stick to itself, but also crumble a bit. This is ultimate peanut butter cookie material. But don't worry, whatever you have, if you added the ingredients correctly, it should turn out fine. If it's too wet, however, add some flour. If it's too dry, add vanilla or milk or even just a bit of water. Add small amounts at a time!
I have a nifty little gadget that looks like an ice cream scoop but far smaller for cookie dough and it works like a charm. If you don't have one of these, however, you can use regular table spoons. As they say in cookie recipes everywhere, "drop by rounded tablespoon onto cookie tray two inches apart." I recommend this for your first batch. After you know how much they'll flatten and spread out, you can just cram your cookie sheets as tight as they'll go. Usually, though, these cookies don't spread whilst baking in the oven.
Okay, so you've got your cookies on the cookie sheet. The signature of peanut butter cookies is to flatten them with a fork. Feel free! Another way, especially if you added "chips", is to leave them in a ball. Often times, if you don't over cook them, the ball form results in only partially cooked cookies, leaving the inside sweet, mushy, and with full flavor. Of course, this is a problem if you're worried about "egg poisoning", but just find eggs that are guaranteed not to have salmonella and it's super tasty. (Although you won't be able to flatten them completely with the chips in, flatten them best you can and the oven will take care of the rest. If, while you're flattening, you find the fork sticking in the cookies, unwilling to come out, console it by dipping it in sugar every few cookies. This not only acts like flour with bread dough, it leaves a nice, but thin, sugar blanket on top of the cookies. You could also do this with cinnamon.)
Whether you flatten them with a fork or leave them round, put them in the oven for nine minutes at 375. This is almost always long enough. If you find your cookies dripping over the edge of the sheet, well, silly, you need more flour! When nine minutes are up, test the cookies. You can do this several ways. You can scoop one up and pop it in your mouth, getting pieces of it everywhere and burning your hand, mouth, esophagus, etc. You can cut one open like a scientist to see if it's cooked to the core. You can try to lift it off the sheet with a spatula and fail. If you're an experienced baker, you could tell by the level of brown the cookie has become.
I recommend a different method, personally. I take my finger and gently press the edge of the cookie and lift if from the baking sheet ever so slightly. The cookie is light and fluffy, visually crinkles up a bit when you lift it, and it's just screaming, "I'M DONE!" If the edges are brown, they are definitely done. Usually, the best cookies are the ones that are just lightly tan all over - a nice even coat. Ideally, they will not be stiff. At least that's the goal. Let them cool on the cookie sheet for about two minutes and then slip your spatula under. If you waited just the right amount of time, the cookie will welcome the spatula and climb on willingly. Be careful during this period if you choose to move them to the cookie sheet - this is when they are in the prime and are ready to cool for best quality, but they will easily pull apart. Gently slide them onto a cooling rack. (If upon, tasting your work - if you did the rounded cookie - the inside is cooked against your will, decrease the time.)
Now, recipes always say "allow cookies to cool completely before storing" and this is generally a good idea. While eating them before they are completely cool is the best cookie-eating idea ever, the extra moisture cookies have before they are completely cool encourages, well, not only mold in the cookie jar but something far more likely - sogginess. (This sometimes happens when you mix cookies in the same jar too.) Cookies that have been sitting in their own sweat, if you will, do not taste their best.
Please enjoy these cookies. Eat each one slowly because, I bet you, they will not hang around long.
~Meggy
How did you know that I was just DYING for peanut butter cookies?? ♥
ReplyDeleteOkay, HAM? How exactly did that happen? :p
- Victoria (http://raindropsandmoonlight.blogspot.com)
*shrugs*
ReplyDeleteIf this doesn't turn out right, let me know. I did this all by memory - my memory being awesome an' all, but there is a slight chance I mis-wrote something.
ReplyDelete