Peanut Butter Cookies (Joy of Baking)

Peanut Butter Yumminess!

Christmas is coming and I have decided that homemade baked goods make great presents.  So I have been experimenting a little on various recipes.  I know I could probably make chocolate chip cookies which are real crowd pleasers, but I thought it would be nice to try out something different.  I don't know if peanut butter is a traditionally Christmassy ingredient, but I love it.  So my experiment #1 are these peanut butter cookies from Joy of Baking.

They are so easy to make, especially if you have a freestanding mixer.  The only work you need to do is to roll the batter into little balls and use a sugar coated fork to squash it.  I found that bit quite therapeutic.  I mixed in chocolate chips into about a third of them.

Little Balls of Batter

Squashed and ready for the oven (I was supposed to criss-cross the lines, but forgot)

Keeping in mind my oven's tendency to overcook, I baked these for only 10 mins.  They were still soft in the oven, but hardened as they cooled.  The cookies were very yummy.  Beautifully soft and moist inside.   They reminded me a little of my late grandmothers' melt-in-your-mouth Chinese New Year peanut cookies.  My mother-in-law has asked for the recipe so that she can make them for Chinese New Year.  I think the peanut butter flavour overwhelms the chocolate chips, so I will make these without chocolate chips.

I used Laura Scudders peanut butter, my favourite brand (available from Cold Storage).  Since this recipe really showcases the peanut butter, make sure you use a brand you really like.  (OK, I lied about the only work being the rolling of the batter into balls.  I used natural peanut butter, so I spent quite a bit of time before baking stirring the peanut oil back into the butter.)

These cookies definitely pass the test, and were so good that I gave V cookies from this batch.  I hope she enjoys it!