Fluffy Peanut Butter Cookies

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These fluffy and rich cookies carry so much peanut buttery goodness while being light in texture.

Total Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Cookies are one of the easiest snacks for me to whip up for a gathering or just to fulfill a craving for sweets. Not only are these cookies quick to make they are absolutely mouth watering in their soft texture. And peanut butter cookies have such a rich flavor that I can pretend they’re savory and healthy (I mean, peanuts are healthy right?). This recipe does tend to make the kitchen smell like peanut butter after they’re made but is that really a bad thing? Let’s get baking!

Check out the Make section of MCG for more fun recipes like desserts and savory dishes.

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Ingredients

This recipe requires quite a bit of sugar. In fact, there is a 2:3 ratio of sugar to flour which is pretty high. But the sugar is a mix of white sugar and brown sugar to add another layer of rich flavor to the cookies. For the leavening agent in the cookies, we are using baking powder but not too much because a large rise is not desired. And, of course, we’ll need peanut butter. 😊

Process

The process for making peanut butter cookies is very straight forward with only a few steps. First, we want to cream together the sugars and butter. Both the brown sugar and white sugar should be used in this part. You don’t need to get a perfect cream as long as the butter and sugars are mixed well together. Then the remaining wet ingredients are added in (egg, peanut butter, vanilla). They are mixed in until the mixture becomes a nice smooth paste. It has a peanut butter like texture.

Then it’s time to make the dough stiffer. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder. This should slowly be added into the wet mixture until a stiff dough is made. If you’re using a mixer, you might see a little resistance in mixing action as the stiff dough gets caught in the paddle. The dough will be malleable by hand at this point.

So we move onto shaping! The dough should be shaped into about one-inch balls. I have found my hand isn’t great at shaping balls, they tend to be more diamond shape when I try to roll them between my hands. But it won’t matter too much with this recipe. Because one you’ve got the balls down, it’s time to flatten to cookies with their classic fork shape. This step is done because it helps the cookies get a more even bake due to the natural density of peanut butter. The fork should press down on the cookie and then be pressed down perpendicular to the original press.

With the shaping process done, we are now ready to move onto baking. The cookies do not take long to bake, only about ten minutes in the oven. And it is so hard to resist that delicious aroma that fills the kitchen. My mouth was watering before they were finished baking and I was worried I would burn my tongue because I wouldn’t be able to resist the cookies right from the oven. It took all my restraint to wait until they were cooled to enjoy these tasty treats!

Lessons

Benefits of Brown Sugar

Brown sugar is often called for in a variety of recipes, but what is it? Brown sugar is a combination of white sugar and molasses (so you can make it at home!). The molasses not only adds an extra layer of flavor to whatever you’re making but also helps retain moisture. This will make the final bake good moister than if white sugar is used. If you want to substitute white sugar for brown sugar, remember that white sugar is denser and that’s why you have to firmly pack the brown sugar to truly get the same quantity.