Monday, March 23, 2009

Peanut Buttery Goodness

While everyone else was having babies this weekend, I decided to make cookies.  Since it was Laetare Sunday and the Solemnity of the Annunciation is this Wednesday, I decided it was a good time to try a new recipe -- eat a few while baking to make sure they were okay, and then take the rest into work on Wednesday!

Recipe courtesy of Jamieann at The Sweetest Kitchen (and she got them from Bon Appetit and Taste of Home)

Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter (do not use old-fashioned style or freshly ground)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter, peanut butter and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Beat in both sugars. Scrape down sides of bowl. Stir half of dry ingredients into mixture. Add eggs 1 at a time, stirring well after each addition. Mix in remaining dry ingredients.

For each cookie, roll 1 heaping tablespoonful of dough into 1 3/4-inch-diameter ball. Arrange dough balls 2 1/2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using back of fork, flatten dough balls and form crosshatch design on tops. Bake cookies until dry on top and golden brown on bottom, about 14 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes. Using metal spatula, transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.


Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie Filling
Adapted from 
The Taste of Home Cookbook

Ingredients
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 -6 tablespoons milk

Method
In a large mixing bowl, beat the peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract and enough milk to achieve spreading consistency.  Spread filling on half of the cookies and top with another cookie.


They're fantastic!!  Really peanut-buttery!  I'm taking Jamieann's advice and refrigerating the cookies with filling since the filling has milk in it.  (It also has the added benefit of softening up the otherwise kind-of-hard cookies.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love looking at the recipes that all of you young women try and when I started reading the commentary on this one, I thought, "this sounds like one of my daughters, probably Joannie." And I laughed when I saw that it WAS!

judy watson/mom/mrsw