Peanut Butter Cookie Perfection

Peanut butter is basically my favorite thing. Don't get me wrong, I love other desserts too, and I won't always go for the peanut butter option depending on my mood, but peanut butter is pretty much a sure thing for me in terms of enjoyment. And, PB cookies are my fiance's absolute favorite (much to my chagrin, he is not a sweet tooth, and rarely eats what I bake, so the opportunity to make something he'll eat is also a huge motivating factor). So, needless to say, I have been looking around forever for a peanut butter cookie recipe. A great recipe. A recipe that is a bold, yet traditional PB cookie. All of the cookies I've tried are not peanut buttery enough, or the consistency is wrong, or they don't have the right color/look. Up until now, my efforts have been in vain. But then I spied, on Bakerella's blog (where else?), a peanut butter cookie recipe. And the thing that caught my eye was the ingredients list -- there were only 3 primary ingredients, and none of them was flour!

Could it be true? Could the answer to the perfect peanut butter cookie really be so simple? I couldn't wait to find out, so I tried the recipe, detemined to make a Valentine's Day gift to Charlie out of them if they turned out well. And...they did...oh, they did.





Ingredients:
2C peanut butter (I used natural to prevent them from being too sweet, since you add sugar)
1C sugar
2 eggs

And that is it folks. Except some semi- or bittersweet melted chocolate if you want to dip them.

Instructions:
1. Mix the PB, sugar and egg until well-blended.

2. Refrigerate the mix for 30 minutes, right in the bowl.

3. Scoop and roll the dough (I used a #40 scoop for this), and place onto the cookie sheet.

4. Flatten each ball down with a fork to make that characteristic criss-cross pattern.

5. Bake at 325F for about 18 minutes. Watch the cookies. They are very delicate, so they will be soft and almost raw looking even when they are done, and they do not brown around the edges. Check the bottoms if you are unsure.

6. Cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, this is necessary to let them firm up a bit. Then, transfer them to a rack and let them cool completely.



If you want to, you can dip them into melted chocolate. I recommend this, (as long as you aren't one of those people who doesn't like PB and chocolate co-mingling) because these cookies are very peanut buttery. Basically, they are like eating a tablespoon of peanut butter -- which is exactly what they are. The chocolate helps cut that just enough, without detracting from the PB-goodness.

These cookies are the best PB cookies I've ever had. They were super easy to make and, best of all, they last forever (I assume because there is no flour). I can safely say, this is it. This is now my recipe for traditional peanut butter cookies. I wish I had Bakerella's skill with a camera, I always take pictures with my iPhone. But trust me, these cookies=peanut butter perfection.