Peanut Butter Cookies

My getting around to making these cookies made it feel as if they weren't meant to be. First, I planned to make sunflower seed butter cookies, using a peanut butter cookie recipe. I got home from work that night to discover my sunflower seed butter (SSB) expired in February... 2010. Oops.

On the next night after work, I went and bought some peanut butter (the store nearest my house doesn't carry SSB) and realized I'd lost the recipe I'd planned to use. Seriously? I was craving for these cookies now, more so each time I hit a road block. I went through a couple of my baking books and settled on a recipe that not only looked delish, but more importantly, didn't require any chilling time. It was late, and I wanted those damn cookies. I had no time to chill the dough!

I noticed several recipes gave the option to swap out the brown sugar for honey. I'll give that variation a try sometime (I LOVE honey) but this round, I wanted good old traditional peanut butter cookies.

I went with a recipe from a book that has yet to disappoint, New Baking Book.

Ingredients

1/2 Cp butter
1/2 Cp natural peanut butter
1/2 Cp organic granulated sugar
1/2 Cp organic brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 organic, cage-free egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 Cps all-purpose flour
Granulated sugar for rolling cookies in (about 1/8 Cp)

*Obviously, organic is not mandatory. However, it makes the flavors so much better! I'm starting to mark my ingredient lists to reflect what I used, organic, or regular.

Beat the butter and peanut butter in your mixture to medium/high for about 30 seconds. You want it to be creamy and well blended. You might notice in my picture that there are a couple small chunks of butter. That's what I get for not waiting for the butter to get to room temp. No big deal!

Nice and smooth!

Next, add the sugar, brown sugar, baking soda and baking powder. Mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally.

Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined.

Now gradually add the flour, blend well after each addition.

Scrape the bowl and make sure no flour is hiding.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls.(I got about 18 cookies doing this, and the recipe claims to make 36. They turned out great and I wouldn't adjust the size to get more cookies. Roll balls gently in the sugar, to coat.

Place balls  on a cookie sheet, with about 2 inches between them. Using a fork, press the tines into the dough in two directions to flatten the balls and create that classic peanut butter cookies pattern.

Bake for 7-9 minutes, or until the  bottoms are lighly browned. Cool on a wire rack, and enjoy!

These were some of the best peanut butter cookies I've ever had. I'll be making them again, that's for sure!

I'll make some sunflower seed butter cookies soon... promise!