Peanut Butter Cookie
Yield 28, 2 oz cookies
A quick note: all recipes are for High Altitude. That 5280 is a beast.
For a simple, classic, go-to recipe, please consider the following:
Ingredients:
1 c (8oz) butter, softened
*8 oz by weight of Classic Creamy peanut butter (approx a single jar, or 1 cup)
1 c granulated sugar
1 c *brown sugar
2 whole eggs
15 oz by weight of all-purpose flour (roughly 2 3/4 cups)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt note that our Classic Creamy contains no salt, so you could add as much as 1 tsp
Optional (shown) 2 cups chocolate chips
Steps:
1) In a bowl, blend the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside
2) In a mixing bowl, blend the softened butter with the peanut butter, scraping down the sides as necessary. Add in both sugars and cream on high for 2 minutes (yes, this really does matter. It's science!) Add both eggs, and blend for 30 seconds more, on medium speed.
3) Add flour mixture into butter/sugar until blended together and a soft, but not sticky dough forms. Stir in optional chocolate chips.
4) Portion out (I used a scale with 2 oz portions by hand) and set on a cookie sheet. Chill (30min-1hr) or freeze. This allows the dough to rest, and flavors to meld. You want melded flavors, don't you? Also, if you freeze the dough on a cookie sheet, you can save them in a container when they’re frozen. Then you can bake a couple cookies anytime you want.
5) When you're ready to bake them, set your oven at 375˚F and place dough about 2" apart on a new cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the edges just turn golden. (Frozen dough takes longer.) When cooked, remove to a cooling rack. Resist urge to shove molten cookies in your face. It burns.
Love and Nuts,
Chef JAM
*Notes: if you need to use measuring cups for this, please use a fluid measuring cup. Dry cups for dry things, fluid cups for liquids and pastes.
If you want a softer, richer cookie, use dark brown sugar (you'll see I added about 1 oz of molasses to mine, because I was out of dark brown.) Also, you can play with the ratio of granulated sugar to brown sugar.
You will also note, that I love adding chocolate chips to EVERYTHING. You could leave them out and use Classic Crunchy instead if you want that extra crunchy bite.
Wishing you the happiest of bellies,
Chef JAM