Peanut Butter Cookies

Shown with chocolate chips. Although not technically necessary to peanut butter cookies, I'm not entirely sure why anyone would choose to omit them.

After the recent culmination of my brownie recipe (final draft not posted yet, as it currently resides on a hard drive without a home), I set my culinary sights onward and, in the opinion of some, upwards. Like many of my more successful attempts, this peanut butter cookie recipe is most heartily stolen from Shari's blog and modified for my own amusement. This is, of course, no slight on her original draft; I simply prefer the texture that my minor tweaks permit. On the downside, this recipe blows through brown sugar like nobody's business, so be prepared to run out in the middle of the baking process. ... Not that that happened to me. I ran out of peanut butter too.

As anyone who clicked on the link above can observe, Shari's recipe is a study in balance: equal parts shortening and butter as well as equal proportions of white and brown sugar. I never had a problem with this balance... until that fateful day.

Like anyone else, I am a creature driven by whims--perhaps more so than most, but that's not really the point--and as such, when I develop a craving for cookie with a peanut buttery core, I spring into action like a well-trained walrus rolling into the water. On this day, I splashed into my pantry only to discover that I had managed to let myself run out of sugar! (well, I had half a cup) ... Gasps are in order here, folks. Work with me!

My mind whirled as I dug through the cupboard with the desperation of an addict looking for that "one last hit". What could I possibly do without white sugar? My mind absently pondered the implications of comparing myself to an addict whilst lamenting the lack of a product termed "white sugar" when I stumbled across a hidden cache of potential culinary gold: powdered sugar (ah! The drug metaphor continues to work!)--which I decided not to mess with for the time being. However! Contained within that cheap faux-Tupperware powdered sugar compartment was a small bag of white sugar's more flavorful and complexificated cousin who is always seen lurking in big brother's shadow, all the while really carrying the weight on his own shoulders.
Emerging from the pantry with my score, I hoisted the entire bag off so we could get reacquainted. Having done cookie research prior to this situation, I knew that to a cookie, sugar was (mostly) sugar, and as such, my old-new friend would be more than happy to help me get my next fix. It is worth noting that the sugar substitution results in a "chewier" cookie, which was just fine with me. The result of my tweakage? A pile of crumbs, a newly-discovered favorite, and several extra pounds around my waistline. The recipe? Observe!

Preheat oven to 375F

1/2 cup Crisco

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1.5 cup brown sugar

1 cup peanut butter

2 eggs

3 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

It is worth noting that this recipe works great in a stand mixer, but can be done by hand as well.

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and shortening together for a few minutes until you have a paste that resembles dense frosting. Add both types of sugar and continue creaming until the mixture resembles dense frosting with sand mixed in.

2. While the butter/shortening mixture is creaming, mix all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Set this aside until step 6 below.

3. Add the peanut butter to the wet mixture and mix well, until the it is no longer readily apparent in the dough.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure the first completely incorporates before adding the second.

5. Top it off with the vanilla, and continue mixing until there remains no evidence of any of the individual ingredients.

If you decide to add anything (i.e., chocolate chips, nuts, etc.) to the final cookie, this is the time to do it.

6. Slowly add the dry mixture, mixing steadily to ensure that the dry ingredients incorporate properly without clumping up. Of course, this step is where the stand mixer shines; however, if working by hand, simply drop the dry stuff in about a cup to a cup and a half at a time and mix until it incorporates. After all the dry has been mixed in, you will have a very loose dough that will clump properly when compressed.


7. Scoop the dough with spoons (I like to use an ice cream scoop) into balls about 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter and place them on a greased cookie sheet. Try not to compress the dough too much in this process, as doing so can create a denser cookie. Of course, if that's what you're after, go to town.


8. Bake at 375F for about 14 minutes for a cookie portion the size of an ice cream scoop. Note that since this recipe makes a hell of a lot of small cookies, the exact time can be determined through trial and error with relatively little consequence (the "rejects" are always the best part anyway).

9. Allow the cookies to cool on a rack until they can be handled without burning your fingers. Stockpile or consume as desired!