Dorie-licious Peanut Butter Cookies

 

First and foremost, let me say that I am a baker. No need to sugar coat, I love baking. Cooking is fun too, but it’s not as therapeutic as baking. To me, the measuring, sifting, and tasting elements of baking are calming and soothing. Cooking is more spontaneous; I don’t measure and I normally don’t follow any recipes. I just throw things into a pot and whip up some kind of dinner.

That being said, I finally found a baking book that follows the same baking philosophies as my own. Cue in Dorie Greenspan. Her book, “Baking: From my home to yours” is a favorite of mine. So many recipes, so little time. I had so many different recipes to chose from, but for my first Dorie endeavor, I chose her Peanut Butter Crisscrosses. Peanut butter cookies are heaven to me. From the salty and sweet crunch to the nutty the aroma that fills my kitchen when I am baking them, they are my favorite cookies. I normally use my old Martha Stewart standby recipe, but her cookies are more dense and clunky. They are more like biscuits than cookies.

I think starting off my baking endeavors with this peanut butter cookie recipe is the best way to usher in my new found love affair with this book. It’s the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Peanut Butter Criss Crosses
makes about 40 cookies.

Dry Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
pinch of nutmeg (I threw in some cinnamon too)

Wet Ingredients:
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup of peanut butter (I used Smooth)
1 cup of light brown sugar
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups of salted peanuts (I left these out.)

Extra 1/2 cup of sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment or cooking spray. Whisk the dry ingredients together. Using a handmixer, beat the butter on medium speed in a mixing bowl until smooth and creamy. Add the peanut butter and beat for another minute. Add the sugars and beat for 3 minutes more. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to fully incorporate the sugar and eggs.

On low speed, add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they just disappears.

Mix in chopped peanuts if you are using them.

our the 1/2 cup of rolling sugar into a small bowl. Working with a level tablespoonful of dough for each cookie, roll the dough between your palms into balls and drop the balls, a couple at a time, into the sugar. (My hands are rather warm, so the dough got really sticky when I was making cookie dough balls so cooling my dough in the fridge for a little bit helped to make the dough easier to work with. ) Roll the balls around in the sugar to coat them, then place on the baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between them.

To make the criss crosses, use a fork and press down on top of the sugar crusted cookies.
Bake for about 12 minutes. When done, the cookies will be lightly colored and somewhat soft. Mine puffed up alot, but then deflated once cooled. Let the cookies sit on a wire rack to cool down.

Soft with crunchy edges, these cookies are the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever made.