Mmmmmmm – peanut butter cookies!! One of my very favorite treats, and they’re so much fun to make!
How these Peanut Butter Cookies Came to Be
Did I ever tell you that my lovely niece and I decided to get together and make a batch of cookies every month from the cookbook I gave her for Christmas one year? Well we did, and I think we’ve done it a whopping three times since! (Or maybe it’s only two … ) We had great intentions, but schedules got in the way, as they do.
But we don’t really care about the frequency because we have so much fun whenever we DO get together! And a while back, we made these delicious peanut butter cookies!
(If you like other kinds of cookies too, and want to see my famous chocolate chip cookie recipe, follow the link for all the secrets!)
The Perfect Cookie Book
The book is called The Pefect Cookie by America’s Test Kitchen*. These are the folks associated with Cook’s Illustrated, my pick for one of the best cooking magazines/resources out there!
The reason I bought this particular book for her, is that the recipe instructions are really clear. Also, there are lots of extra tips and notes where they really explain the reasons behind parts of the recipe. It’s so much easier and more fun when you understand Why you do something. Plus, you learn so much more too, that you can transfer to other cookies – or just general baking – later!
The pictures are seriously inspiring!
Peanut Butter Cookie Ingredients
Here’s everything we used.
- 2 ½ cups (12½ ounces/354 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 16 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup packed (7 ounces/198 grams) light brown sugar
- 1 cup (7 ounces/198 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 cup extra-crunchy peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup salted dry-roasted peanuts
The Process
First, stir up the first batch of ingredients in a bowl. I like to use a wooden spoon with a hole because it mixes the flour and other dry ingredients better than a regular spoon.
Then grind up the peanuts for later.
Mix the second batch of ingredients next, (in the bowl of the mixer) till they’re fluffy. Then add the 3rd batch of ingredients, one at a time.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet – slowly – and mix well.
Then when they’re all nicely mixed together, add in the ground peanuts. Your dough will look something like this.
Form the Cookies
As you can see in the picture above, the dough comes out of the bowl a little “uncohesive,” but it comes together pretty well when you start making the cookies. Rolling the balls is a lot of fun, but the most fun is pressing them with a fork to get that traditional peanut butter cookie look! We used a large serving fork for faster work!
They don’t really spread out too much, so you can put them closer together than we did here, if you want. We did on our next round.
Bake Your Peanut Butter Cookies
Pop two sheets into a 300 degree oven, and bake for about 5 minutes. At that point, switch and rotate the pans for another 5-7 minutes. As I always say, on your first time with a recipe, check your oven often – some are hotter than others!
They come out of the oven all golden and delicious!
And I’m always glad I use parchment paper to catch the melted butter. Cleaning the pan is so much easier!
The Finished Peanut Butter Cookies!
So there’s my experience making peanut butter cookies from The Perfect Cookie cookbook!* My beautiful niece and I are planning more cookie baking evenings, and I’ll be sure to share them with you!
If you get the book, you can follow along. And it’s much more detailed than I was here. Way more tips and tricks to get them just right!
Peanut Butter Cookie Pictures
And then I tried my hand at some “artistic” peanut butter cookie pictures! I’ll only make you sit through two of the approximately 5000 I took!
Let me know what you think – are you a fan of peanut butter cookies? Crunchy or chewy? These were right in the middle – my new favorite recipe!
Barbara’s Boutique Recommendations
Click on the pictures below for links to the pieces I mentioned in this post. If something’s not available, I chose a similar replacement.
* This post includes affiliate links for your shopping convenience. If you click on a link and buy anything from that site within 24 hours, I get a small commission with no extra cost to you! It really helps toward the cost of publishing Mantel and Table, and I seriously appreciate it. (You can read the whole disclosure policy here.) Thanks so much for shopping with me!
And remember, a portion of anything you buy from MANTELandTABLE.com goes to Habitat for Humanity and Proud Ground. With our purchases, we get to help people build homes for their own mantels and tables!
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These look delicious Barbara and what a great idea to gift them away – much better for the waist line lol. I heard you had some nasty weather last week and I hope you came through the storm okay. We are into week 3 of the polar vortex here and I am soooo weary of winter.Take care down there my friend!
Oh my gosh! I remember those wintery days from Minnesota! SO happy we only had our little 2 days of snow and sort-of bad driving down here. You’re tough! I should send some of the cookies up to you!! Take care up there my friend – spring is coming!
These look so delicious, Barbara! Peanut butter cookies are my very favorite! Thanks for sharing.
Oooh good to know! I love them too! So glad you’re a cookie sister!
Wow! What a treat-thank you so much for sharing. I have no defense against peanut butter, in any shape, size or form. So these little treats are right up my alley!! So glad you had fun baking these with your niece. One day my niece I will be able to…right now she’s with 2 toddlers, and #3 ‘in the oven’! Thank you again!!
Ha – right there with you Kristine. I love peanut butter! I hope you and your niece can get together for a baking session some day – maybe when the little ones are old enough to help! Thanks so much for stopping by!