recipe: peanut butter cookies

Adapted from Gourmet magazine.

ingredients ~
1 cup of creamy peanut butter
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda

extras: pinch of salt for the batter, extra sugar and large flake salt for sprinkling on the tops of the cookies

preparation ~

In a small-ish bowl (like what you’d eat your cereal out of), beat the egg with a fork, then mix in the sugar. Add the peanut butter, baking soda, and a pinch of salt and stir until it comes together into a thick ball.

Roll dough between your palms, making smooth dough balls. You can choose your size; I prefer small-ish cookies, and can get about 18 cookies onto one of my parchment-lined baking sheets.

Now this where the recipe gets slightly fussy, and following exact directions will be beneficial!

Sprinkle the dough balls first with a little sugar, then use a fork to smash them with the cross-hatch mark (or whatever mark you prefer). Because there is no flour, the dough is really sticky and you need the sugar to keep the fork from sticking and making a mess of your cookies.

The final step I recommend is a sprinkling of a larger-flake salt, like Maldon (but kosher salt works well too) to give it a hint of salty to balance out the sweetness.

Bake them for 6-7 minutes (time varies depending on the size you choose) in a 350 degree oven. Allow to cool completely before enjoying, as they will be very crumbly and fall apart if you try to pick them up before they cool. I use organic, natural peanut butter, which results in a very rich, crumbly cookie, but the regular grocery store brands (like Jif) work quite well if that’s what you have on hand.

Enjoy ~