Ingredients
• 112g butter, salted, room temperature
• 110g soft brown sugar
• 100g granulated sugar
• 130g peanut butter
• 1 large egg
• 160g plain flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Method
1. Beat the butter until creamy, 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar, beat for 2 more minutes. Mix in the peanut butter and the egg.
2. In a separate bowl, vigorously whisk together the dry ingredients—the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Stir the dry ingredients into the sugar butter mixture.
3. Wrap dough in plastic and put in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
4. Preheat the oven to 190°C
5. Line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
6. Cut the dough into 4 even pieces and then cut each piece into 6 pieces and roll in your hands to make 24 balls of dough. Place the balls of dough about 5 cm apart on the lined baking sheets. Flatten gently in a crisscross pattern with a fork. (It helps to dip the fork in sugar to keep it from sticking to the dough.
7. Bake one sheet at a time on the centre rack at 190°C until light brown, about 9 to 11 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool in their baking sheets for a minute. After 1 minute, transfer the cookies to a rack to cool completely. For chewier cookies, bake at 150°C for 10 to 15 minutes.
Made these with our 3 and a half year grandchild on Saturday. Prepared the dough before he arrived then rolled, prepared and cooked the cookies while he was here. Good cookies !!!
You can use either smooth or crunchy conventional peanut butter for this recipe. Smooth peanut butter will give you a smoother consistency. Crunchy will give you some bits of peanuts throughout the cookie.
The oils in natural peanut butter tend to separate, causing cookies to spread and take on a gritty texture. You can use it, but conventional peanut butter is preferred for the best cookie texture.
You can chill the dough for less time than the 3 hours the recipe calls for, but it does help the cookies to keep their shape if the dough is completely chilled, which it should be by the 3 hour mark.