These cookies are a bit like a peanut – flavored “sandy” style shortbready kind of thing, so satisfying in the mouth!
Another altered recipe. Doubling the amounts is never enough for me; I always end up fiddling with the ingredients too. But this time, I’m going to give you a half-of-the-doubled version as well, because they have to be eaten up in a reasonable amount of time. My fam thinks they are a primary food group, so the big batch won’t have a chance to go stale over here. but if there were only a couple of us I’d make the smaller batch.
Ingredients
Doubled recipe;4 cups flour* 2 tsp Baking Soda 1 tsp Baking Powder 1-1/2 tsp Salt 1 cup Shortening *~ 1 cup Brown Sugar *~* 1/2 cup White Sugar ~*~ 2 large eggs 2 tsp Vanilla 2-3 cups Peanut Butter |
Half of the doubled recipe;2 cups flour 1 tsp Baking Soda 1/2 tsp Baking Powder 3/4 tsp Salt 1/2 cup Shortening 1/2 cup Brown Sugar 1/2 cup White Sugar 1 large eggs 1 tsp Vanilla 1-2 cups Peanut Butter |
*I use more flour than a lot of recipes call for. My aim is not quite the delicate morsels of a tea party setting; I’m after something a wee bit more filling.
*~ This would be unsalted butter. But lately I’ve been experimenting with lard alone or in combination with butter; I add about 1/3 cup of yogurt if I use it alone, to replace the water content.
*~* I’ll make a blog about making my own brown sugar in the next few days.
~*~ Or, more brown sugar.
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Whisk to combine the flour, soda, baking powder, and salt.
Use a mixer to cream together the shortening and sugars. I’ve recently learned to use the lowest speed for this. Avoiding “light and fluffy” is sort of a good thing when you are making little things like cookies. The powders you’ve added to the flour impart all the lightness and fluffiness you need.
Mix in the the yogurt if you are using it, then the eggs and vanilla.
Mix in the peanut butter. Now is the time to decide you need more peanut butter in the mix.. like maybe a half a cup more… and then maybe one more big dollop… You will be running your mixer for a lot longer at this point, by the way, and that’s okay.
Mix in the flour in three portions. Unlike your eggs and sugars, you want to mix just until it’s combined. If you’re using your wonderful Kitchenaid like I will be, it really helps to scrape the walls of the bowl down while it’s doing its thing, to get all the flour incorporated quickly so you can turn it off again. This is even more important if you added yogurt, because flour plus liquid equals gluten strand formation and that’s great for bread but not for cookies.
Once again, a scoop is a great way to portion these cookies out. I found a 1-ounce sized scoop and it seems to approach the platonic deal for me. Flatten the balls with a fork so you get those lines across the top that prepare everyone’s mouth for peanut butter deliciousness.
Bake 16 -20 minutes, depending on size and if you added the yogurt, which will add some cooking time. I take them out when they are toasted on the sides and gently colored up on top.
If you use a cooling rack, you’ll find you have to let the cookies cool a bit on the pan before you disturb them, they are just that tender!