When my husband and I were in the early stages of dating, I was living in Minneapolis and he was living up in the cold, frozen city of Duluth. We would drive to see each other on weekends and on Sunday when we would go our separate ways, I would hand him over a care package of baked goods (I was convinced there weren't any decent bakeries in Duluth). In it contained what he has since told me were, "the peanut butter cookies that won him over." They are a simple no fuss, no frills but darn it if they aren't the best peanut butter cookie you've ever tasted... no really...
Ingredients Needed:
3/4 cup Jif Peanut Butter (no it's not organic and yes it has to be Jif)
1/4 cup Crisco (yes we know it's the devil)
1/4 cup Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1-1/4 cups Firmly Packed Light Brown Sugar
4 tbs Whole Milk (2% & 1% can be substituted)
2 tbs Vanilla
1 Egg (room temperature)
2 cups flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. Cream peanut butter, crisco, butter & brown sugar
3. Add milk, vanilla and egg, blend just until combined.
4. Add flour, salt and baking soda (you can pre-whisk them, but for this recipe we find as long as the salt and baking soda layer in on top of the flour before mixing, it turns out just fine!) Blend until flour is combined, scrape bowl and mix 20 seconds more.
5. Place bowl in freezer for at least a half hour. An hour is preferable (this dough will keep splendidly in the freezer for several months).
6. Use a 1/4 cup scoop and place dough 2" apart on cookie sheets.
7. Place in oven for 7 minutes.
8. Rotate pans front to back and top to bottom in oven & bake for 5 minutes more.
9. Remove promptly from oven and slide parchment paper onto cooling racks. Keeping them on the pan will continue baking the cookie, leaving you with a more crumbly texture... which although is still tasty, isn't as husband winning.
10. Let sit for 2 minutes on parchment and press with a potato masher. It will create uniform markings on your cookies and presses the gooey centers down keeping your cookie moist and delicious.
11. Cool and enjoy! They will keep up to a week in an air tight container, if you can keep your hands out of the cookie jar!
It is essential that your dough be chilled before baking. Because of its (delicious) fat content, it doesn't ever freeze rock solid, which means you can make it a day ahead and toss it in the freezer without worry. If the batter is warm, even a little, it will spread and give you thinner cookies which although taste the same, the texture of a large chewy cookie is a little nicer and makes for a prettier cookie!
It's guaranteed to win over the hearts of the young and old alike! Enjoy!
Related: Internet Sensation: The No-Flour, No-Butter Peanut Butter Cookies Revisited
(Images: Sarahrae)
In Duluth's defense, they do have one good bakery. The Third Street Bakery makes treats that are shipped to my tiny town, and they are delicious. Try the mocha cookies someday.
view jenswerner's profile
Do you have a secret trick for making your cross hatches on the top so perfect? My usual squish-with-fork approach makes for a nice homey look, but yours look fab.
view MayaOnFiya's profile
Oh this sounds like how my grandmother used to make them! She was all about Crisco and all about Jiff!!
She used a fork on the top, but the pattern here looks like it was made by a potato masher-- the one I inherited from my grandmother would do the trick, actually!
view geekgirl's profile
The secret to the perfect cross marks is a potato masher. Check out a few extra details above on using it (can't be too early and can't be too late!), but it works better than any tool in my arsenal when it comes to cookies!
view sarahrae's profile
OMG, potato masher! How simply brillant
view Expat Decorator's profile
Is that two tablespoons or two teaspoons of vanilla??
view smbslt's profile