I absolutely love peanut butter cookies. They go great with moo juice. They are the best cookies in the entire world. No other cookie could treat me better. I did it all for the cookie! Best eaten very soon after removing from the oven. I think this recipe comes from an ex-girlfriend but I don't really recall for sure anymore. But this is a decent recipe for single people/small groups. I usually end up with about 12-16 cookies depending on how big I make them.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup shortening (part butter)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Cream shortening and peanut butter. Sure an electric mixer would help, but for poor folk a fork and some elbow grease will work also. Add sugar, beat egg seperately and blend into cream. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Chill well. (This helps in the next step, trust me.) Form into balls, placed onto greased baking sheet, flatten w/ fork. Dip the fork in flour frequently to keep it from sticking to the dough as you flatten it into cookies.

Bake 10-12 min @ 375 deg.

One cup brown sugar
One cup butter
One cup peanut butter
Two eggs
One teaspoon vanilla
Two and a quarter cups flour
One quarter cup cocoa powder
One teaspoon baking soda

Mix the ingredients in the order given. Roll dough into balls (experiment with the size). Flatten the balls with a fork dipped in flour. Bake in a 350 degrees fahrenheit oven for about ten minutes.

An important side note: some people cannot (or don't want to) eat peanut butter, so it is traditional to mark the top of the cookie with hash marks, or in some cases, 3-4 parallel lines. As the recipes above say, this is usually done by pressing into them with a fork covered in flour.

If you're making these cookies for others to consume, don't forget the hash marks!

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Allergy Safe Recipes

Version one

1/4 cup honey
2/3 cup peanut butter
1 3/4 cup oat flour*
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt

Stir the honey and peanut butter together, then add water and salt. Add oat flour and stir well. Shape into small balls about one inch in diameter.
Place on a greased cookie sheet and flatten to about 1/4 inch with a fork, making criss-cross patterns on the cookie. Bake at 350 (F) for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

*You can make oat flour by putting rolled oats into a blender or food processor and pulverizing them.

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Version two

1 cup peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
1 cup sugar
1 egg

Mix well. Place on ungreased cookie sheet as for cookies, flattening slightly. Place sheet in a 350 degree preheated oven for about 10 minutes.

Makes about 1 dozen or so.

This recipe originally came to me from my maternal grandmother. Back in the day, she mixed this by hand, with a wooden spoon, in the large yellow bowl I inherited from her. The first time I made the recipe by myself I marveled at upper arm strength of that little lady. I couldn't make the dough budge! I needed a electric hand mixer, which burned out by the time I got the dough together. As a result, I didn't make these cookies very often. Having to buy a new hand mixer everytime I made these cookies made them too expensive.

Three years ago my parents gave me a Kitchen-Aide stand mixer for Christmas. I was floored! I couldn't believe they would get me such a cool, and expensive, gift. The first thing I made in that mixer were these cookies. My stepfamily had never had them because they were just too expensive to make. Everyone loved them and they've become a staple of our Christmas cookie baking tradition.

Ingredients:

2 cups shortening

2 cups white sugar

2 cups brown sugar

4 eggs, well beaten

1 jar of peanut butter, 18 ounces **

5 cups flour, well sifted

4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

** Find the cheapest peanut butter you can. Generic works well. The brand name peanut butters on the market do not give you enough peanut butter flavor, in my opinion. Organic peanut butters work well, if you don't mind mixing the peanut butter together first. Don't skimp on the vanilla extract. If you can afford it, get the best extract you can find.

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. Line up your baking sheets and, if you have Silpats, line your baking sheets with them. With the amount of fat and oil in this recipe, the cookies don't usually stick to the baking sheets, but using Silpat just makes clean up easier.

In a small bowl, crack your four eggs. Beat them well and then set them aside. In the largest bowl you have (five quarts is just big enough for this recipe) put in the shortening, sugar, peanut butter, extract and then add the eggs. Mix these ingredients together until creamy smooth. In a sifter, place the flour, baking soda and salt; slowly sift in the dry ingredients to the creamy mixture. Sift in about a cup at a time, mixing the dry into the creamy between cups. By the time you get the last cup of dry ingredients into the bowl, you will have a sore arm or a burned out mixer.

I don't usually chill the dough before I begin baking. The choice is yours. I use a measured tablespoon to place the dough on the baking sheets. They are half round and I then use a fork to flatten them out, making the traditional cross-hatch pattern on the dough. I can get 16 cookies on a baking sheet this way. The entire recipe makes roughly 90 cookies. I say roughly because we eat the raw dough as we go, so I don't know, exactly, how many cookies this recipe is supposed to make. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes and place on a rack to cool.

Giant Peanut Butter Cookies

I first made these wonderful treats early one Tuesday morning. After playing around a bit with the temperature settings I have found the perfect ones. The cinnamon is my personal addition, you don't need to use if if you don't want to, or you can use more, I think it gives them a nice flavour. I first made these with chunky peanut butter but soon learned that they taste better with smooth peanut butter and added peanuts. Try different things and see what you like.

After making these that fateful Tuesday I went to work and tried them out on my boss who enjoyed them. Later that evening I had plans to go out with the person who was later to become my current boyfriend. I think that peanut butter cookies are pretty much universally loved, and hoped to start off on a good foot with these. It worked. ::smiles::

Anyway, these cookies are really, really yummy. I recommend that you double or triple the recipe because you will eat the whole first batch by yourself. That being said, onto the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup 125ml packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup 125ml white sugar
• 1/2 cup 125ml softened butter
• 1/2 cup 125ml peanut butter
• 1 tsp 5ml vanilla extract
• 1 nice, big egg
• 1/2 tsp 2.5ml baking powder
• 1/2 tsp 2.5ml baking soda
• 1/2 tsp 2.5ml salt
• 1/4 tsp 1.25ml cinnamon
• 1-1/4 cup 300ml flour
• 1/2 cup 125ml peanuts, optional

THE DIRECTIONS

1. Heat your oven to 375*F 190*C
2. Combine brown sugar, white sugar, butter and peanut butter in a large bowl, beat well.
3. Add vanilla and egg, beat well again.
4. Put your electric mixer away and get a big wooden spoon.
5. Mix baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
6. Now stir in the peanuts. Hands getting tired?
7. Gradually add flour, mix well.
8. Shape into large balls, using approximately 1/4 cup of dough for each.
9. Place balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet, with about 4 inches between each. Bake them for 20 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and let cool. Or at least let them cool enough so you don't burn your tongue.
11. Share.

This recipe makes 16-20 cookies.

Yes, the recipe is correct--there is NO flour in these cookies! For those who doubt if the recipe 'works' let me assure you that it does. I have made these cookies for years and have even sold them at a market my family used to own. I use name-brand peanut butter for these cookies. I don't think the healthier organic types would work, but feel free to experiment (also note that if you want to make these gluten-free you should use vanilla which is NOT made using grain alcohol).

I call it "Number 1" for three reasons: all the ingredients are measured in equivalents of one (so it is easy to remember--well, for Americans it is!), it is super quick and easy (who doesn't like that?), and because of the great peanut-butter flavor (because there is no flour or margarine/butter to dilute the PB).

Number 1 Peanut Butter Cookies

• 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
• 1 cup crunchy peanut butter (240 grams)
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla (5 ml)

Preheat oven to 325F/165C. Line cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper. Using a wooden spoon, stir all of the ingredients together very well. Drop by well-rounded teaspoon 2 inches apart. Flatten in criss-cross pattern with fork dipped in sugar (I usually sprinkle a little additional sugar on top of the cookies--it gives them a little extra crunch and sparkle).

Bake 14 to 16 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on rack. NOTE: unlike many others which are great when eaten still warm from the oven, Peanut Butter cookies seem to taste best when cooled.

Makes about 15 cookies.