Peanut Butter Cookies

My cousin just had a birthday and when I asked what dessert she usually likes best she answered "peanut butter."  She's not a fan of chocolate so V and I made her classic peanut butter cookies.

There are hundreds of recipes for this but I was immediately drawn to Joanne Chang's version from Flour.  I had her on the brain since I just started following her on Instagram and she posts pictures of pastries almost every day.  Flour is our favorite bakery in Boston and I love Joanne's cookbook.  I don't have the hard copy with me now but thankfully someone else posted the recipe on her blog.

Thanks to Joanne Chang and Madeline from Thursday Night Baking!  These cookies are perfect.  We halved the recipe and it still made almost 30 cookies.  No stand mixer was required either- just some good old-fashioned elbow grease.  10 minutes wasn't quite long enough for us so I ended up somewhere around 13 minutes.  The warm cookies were amazing with caramel swirl ice cream, and they were nice and crisp the next day.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cup chunky peanut butter (not all natural, there is too much oil in it. Stick with the Jiff!)
• 2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º F.
2. Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes)
3. Beat in the eggs and vanilla on medium speed for 2 minutes, or until combined. Scrape down the bowl and mix again to ensure completely mixed.
4. On medium low speed, beat in the peanut butter for another 2 minutes.
5. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt until well mixed. On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture, mix until just combined.
6. Drop the dough in tablespoon sized balls onto ungreased baking sheet. Using a fork, make the traditional criss cross pattern on top of each cookie. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown on the edges, but still pale in the center. Let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.