Delightfully Dense Peanut Butter Cookies

Sometimes, you just need an easy little peanut butter cookie to brighten up your day. And these ones certainly fit the bill, being both easy and quite yummy. They don't flatten out much when baking, instead pretty much holding their little ball shape while getting some small cracks on the top. You can decide not to roll them in sugar before baking, but that does cause them to spread just slightly more, and they dry out a little bit faster. But it's all up to personal taste there! Perhaps you don't want quite as much sugar, and that's perfectly understandable.

I also appreciate when recipes make smaller amounts of cookies, as having a bunch lying around is no good for a couple reasons. You know, so you don't eat all of them. And also so they don't go a bit stale before you have a chance to eat all of them.

You can use natural or the Jif/Skippy variety of peanut butter for these. The ones I made in this recipe were with natural peanut butter. I expect they are not quite as moist or sweet as ones made with the "regular" peanut butters, but they are still delicious, and perhaps slightly healthier? Sure! Honestly I always prefer to use non-natural peanut butters because I hate having to mix around the oils in natural ones. And this time was no exception, as the oil kept spilling over the edge of the container and just generally causing me to be annoyed. But c'est la vie, I suppose. It's just peanut butter.

Delightfully Dense Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted or aerated
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar, for coating

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Beat together your peanut butter and butter until smooth. Add in the brown sugar, and beat until combined. Then, add in the egg and vanilla and beat some more until it's nice and creamy.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together your flour and baking powder, then slowly mix in to your wet ingredients until just combined.
3. Line your baking sheet with parchment or a silpat. Place your sugar on a plate, then roll spoonfuls of the dough into balls, and coat them in the sugar by rolling them around the plate.
4. Place them about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet, and bake for about 12 minutes, until the edges just start to brown and the cookies start to crackle on top. Remove from the oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for another 10 minutes before transferring to a rack or plate to cool completely.

Recipe via Julia's Album