PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

We ALWAYS have peanut butter at home, ALWAYS! Skip loves it and now that he detests jam (which he couldn’t do without for the past 5 years), he has to have all breakfast items with PB. Skip is trying to eat healthy and exercise to lose the little paunch he thinks he has grown during this period of lockdown. The other day I received a distressed message from my father-in-law’s number. It was Skip – “Doing pushups failed I tried 5 times push ups faild”. Skip has now downloaded an App that will help him achieve six-pack abs in 20 days. For those new to our blog, Skip is my 8-year old son!

I prefer buying items in bulk now to avoid frequent purchases and then sitting on the terrace dunking bottles and bottles in ‘dettol-water’. I purchased a 1kg jar of crunchy peanut butter and each time I opened the fridge, it called out to me “Bake cookies, bake cookies” and I thought it would be rude to ignore these pleas. So I got to scrolling on the internet and came across the recipe by Preppy Kitchen. I’ve been watching his videos on YouTube and this is the first one I’ve tried.

The recipe calls for a mix of sugars – light brown and white, granulated. Brown sugar makes cookies moist and chewy. I didn’t have brown sugar at home so I used only white and the cookies still turned out great. The dough needn’t be refrigerated and can be baked right away. I’ve said this earlier - do not exceed the baking time else the cookies will end up too crispy. At the end of the twelfth minute, the cookie will still be soft to touch, however it will gradually harden as it cools.

These cookies are sooooooo good! They are firm to hold and soft and crumbly when you put them in your mouth. You get a burst of peanut flavour when you bite into the cookies and then it melts into your mouth. I would recommend using the chunky peanut butter (with bits of peanut in it rather than smooth one). If you are looking to bake cookies, we also have recipes for Oat Cookies and ChocoChip Cookies. 

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES (Makes 21 cookies)

Ingredients:

All purpose flour (maida) – 180 gms

Baking powder – ¾ th  tsp

Salt – a pinch

Unsalted butter – 67 gms (at room temperature)

Peanut Butter – 250 gms

White granulated sugar – 180 gms

Egg – 1

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Method:

1.     Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

2.    In a separate bowl, combine the butter and peanut butter. Add sugar to it and mix until combined. Add the egg and vanilla essence, mix again.

3.   Add the flour mixture to the above mixture and mix it until well combined. Do not over mix.

4.  Roll them into balls and place them on the baking tray. Use a fork to press the cookie down gently while making the criss-cross pattern.

5.    Bake at 180C for 10-12 mins.

6.   Gently take them off the baking tray and cool them on a rack.

7.    Done

Recipe notes:

•      I used iodised salt, hence added just a pinch. If you like your cookies to be mildly salty, you may add ¼ th tsp of sea salt.
•    I used sweetened, crunchy peanut butter. If you are using unsweetened, you may increase the quantity of sugar to suit your taste.
•    The recipe calls for 100 gms of packed light brown sugar and 100 gms of white granulated sugar. I didn’t have brown sugar at home and used white granulated instead. I however reduced the quantity by 20 gms, you needn’t.