Quick, DessertsPaul Shetler Fastpeanut butter

Extra Nutty Peanut Butter Cookies

Quick, DessertsPaul Shetler Fastpeanut butter
Extra Nutty Peanut Butter Cookies

Our daughter Madeline wanted to make an extra peanut buttery version of the classic chewy peanut butter cookie for our 4th of July festivities. While we were mixing up the ingredients we ‘accidentally’ doubled the peanut butter in the King Arthur recipe we were working from. After some additional adjustments to accommodate our mistake, these are the delicious result! Tender, chewy, SOOOOO peanut buttery and crunchy, not too sweet, and a little salty. They are a new family favorite!

Many thanks to Madeline for the inspiration and nudging to get our first post up in 6 years!

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Yield: About 3 dozen

Ingredients

  • 8 tablespoons butter, softened

  • 2 cups brown sugar

  • 1/4 cup corn syrup

  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extra

  • 1 teaspoon butter extract (optional)

  • 4 eggs

  • 4 cups peanut butter, crunchy prefered

  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 325.

  2. Mix together (paddle attachnent if using mixer) at high speed, butter, sugar, corn syrup, baking soda, baking powder, salt, vanilla and butter extract until fluffy, about 2 minutes.

  3. To the mixture, add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each briefly until fluffy.

  4. Add the peanut butter and mix until well combined.

  5. Stir in the flour until combined.

  6. Prepare the baking sheets with parchment paper or butter.

  7. Using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop, drop cookies onto prepared pan, leaving at least 1 inches between (these cookies do not tend to spread).

  8. Bake for 15-15 minutes, until lighly browned around the edges. Don’t overbake if you want them to remain chewy.

  9. Cool on a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes.

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My sister is a cookie making virtuoso and when it's her turn to host family dinner, Paul and I start perseverating about her dessert days in advance!  While my sister is a cookie genius, I am the cookie klutz in the family. The problem with my often laissez-faire attitude to cookie making is that baking depends on science and precision. In a spurt of baking abandonment this past weekend, I guesstimated the amount of baking soda and "tweaked" a recipe in a few too many places...the result was a cookie-bomb that covered the baking sheet and my oven. My kitchen filled with smoke and feeling my baking-esteem slipping, I ditched the improvised-cookie plan and soothed myself with a batch of one of our foolproof favorites: Blackstrap Molasses Cookies.

There are many things to recommend these Blackstrap Molasses Cookies. They have a complex, caramel taste with a warm spiciness and satisfying soft texture. Molasses is the mineral and flavor-rich by-product spun off of sugar during processing. "Blackstrap" is the darkest most intensely flavored version of molasses, so rich in minerals and vitamins that some people take it as a dietary supplement. These cookies are a favorite in our household: soft, rich, and deeply spiced. 

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