GTB RECIPES

TRIED AND TRUE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

By Ellen "EJ" Sackett

I bought myself an early Christmas present last week—a retro-red electric mixer. It had been a while since I'd baked anything. To break in my new toy, I decided to make my mother's peanut butter cookies. The recipe makes a bunch, a great choice for cookie swap parties, and they freeze well so you can make them ahead of time to have on hand for starving children and unexpected guests.

Thank goodness for Mom. I don't know what I'd do without her on the other end of the phone, walking me through each step, from "Do you know if brown sugar has an expiration date?" to "It's me again. Do you know how many sticks of butter there are to a cup?" to "Which do you want to hear first: the good news or the bad news?" to "Mom, I've got to go—I smell smoke!"

This recipe is foolproof. I can vouch for this, since this batch survived ad-libbing the amounts of baking powder and baking soda (since the measuring spoons were MIA), accidently bumping the spatula into the spinning beaters and breaking off the tip (thankfully found intact in the dough), forgetting to add flour until the last minute (lordy, that dough is awfully sticky), and finally, almost burning the house down (I did put the oven on bake, not broil, didn't I?).

Okay, so I'm not a great cook, but I love to eat peanut butter cookies. You will too, after you try this recipe:

Mom's Peanut Butter Cookies
(from "Kiss the Cook", a family cookbook by Betty Ann and Dick Ritscher, 1997).

(Suggestions from Mom: "For extra crunch, make 'em with crunchy peanut butter. I sometimes add a cup of mini-chocolate chips to the batter.")

1 cup minus 2 tablespoons butter (or margarine)
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 or 3 tablespoons wheat germ (optional)

1. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, thoroughly mix butter, peanut butter, granulated and brown sugars and eggs.

2. In a small bowl, fork-stir flour with baking powder, baking soda, and wheat germ.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and beat until smooth. Cover bowl and refrigerate until the dough is well chilled.

4. Roll dough into balls the size of large walnuts. Place them 3 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Dip a fork in flour and flatten each ball in a criss-cross pattern.

5. Bake in an oven preheated to 375 degrees F until cookies are light brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. Watch them carefully; they should be set, but not hard. Cool on a wire rack Store in tin with a tight-fitting lid. These cookies freeze well.

Yield: About 5 dozen cookies.

Originally published in Keller Citizen 2008 Holiday Guide.