Peanut Butter Cookies

Week 8

This week's host was ME! I choose to bake Peanut Butter Cookies. Recipe on page 157 of our book.

A couple of weeks ago Jesse hosted the 7 Layer Bars. Before her post she introduced herself and told us Bake 52 group a little about herself and her family. While reading her post it made me feel a little better about our group. It's great to know all of you through baking and it was even better to know a little about Jesse's personal life and maybe more of you to, in the future. So thank-you Jesse. After that being said I will tell you a bit about myself.


I was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Moved to Utah to attend LDS Business College where I studied Interior Design. After college I met my husband and got married, had kids, and never left. You know the story. Her I am living in Layton, Utah while the rest of the family is in Canada. That's life, right! I have two kids under three which makes life pretty busy. Not to busy to learn how to bake, which I am sure they are enjoying. My husband is going to school and manages an employment agency while I stay a home with the kiddies. I also do color consultations on the side for fun. Gotta keep some of the schooling up to beat. (LOL) I heard about Bake 52 from my neighbor and good friend Jen Zollinger.You can probably guess that I don't know any of you personally but have had and will continue to get to know all you amazing bakers through this club.
There it is. . . time for my weeks of posting!

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Trying to decide what to bake for my week of hosting, I asked for my hubby's opinion and he suggested cookies. We're the family that has a sweet tooth for cookies. While flipping through all the other amazing goodies in the book I kept going back to the cookie section. I guess you can say that's our favorite treat. Whenever we have a sweet craving it's almost always for soft and chewy homemade cookies. I have been searching for a great Peanut Butter Cookie recipe for years now. I have found a couple that made it to the top three and this is one of them. My only concern is the amount of sugar and butter that it calls for. Although, it does make way more then 24 cookies, so maybe it's not to bad. When I bake them again I will experiment on those ingredients. I am always looking for a way to make my baking a bit more healthier (if that is possible with baking).

HERE WE GO!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2  cups (12 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1        teaspoon salt
• 1/2     teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2     teaspoon baking powder
• 16      tablespoons (2sticks) unsalted butter softened
• 1        cup packed (7 ounces) light brown sugar
• 1        cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
• 1        cup extra-crunchy peanut butter
• 2        teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2        large eggs
• 1        cup (5 ounces) dry-roasted salted peanuts, chopped fine

Recipe
 

Adjust the oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middles positions and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. 

Beat in the peanut butter until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. 

I used smooth peanut butter. Only because that is what was in our house. It worked great as, I am sure, crunchy would to.

Beat in the vanilla, then the eggs, on at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed.

Crushed Peanuts using my blender

  Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Mix in the chopped peanuts until just incorporated.

Working with 3 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls and lay them on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Following the photo, make a  crosshatch design on each cookie with a fork.

I think the ball is about 3 tablespoons. I say this because we had about 50 cookies. In the book their cookies look a normal size but with how much dough the recipe made I don't know how they came up with only 24 cookies. Maybe 24 very large cookies. Oh well. If you don't have a big family you could bake half the dough and freeze the other have so you don't have so many cookies at once.

Bake the cookies until the edges are golden and the centers have puffed and are beginning to deflate, 10 to 12 minutes, switching and rotating the baking sheets halfway through baking. 

I only baked them for 10 minutes. It is so dry in Utah I find that when I bake anything the smallest amount of time suggested is usually plenty.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.


I am very pleased with the outcome. I did choose one of the more simple recipes in the book and lets be honest, you can't really screw up cookies. Especially when we have baked things like cheesecake, Challah, and Quiche that have turned out fabulous.

Don't they look wonderful! That night we enjoyed soft and chewy peanut butter cookies, that the whole family loved. I really enjoyed the crunch of the peanuts used in this recipe.

A Tip & A Question:

1. Enjoy with milk!
2. Who came up with the idea to crosshatch peanut butter cookies? It's great!