Peanut Butter Cookies

This month we are baking cookies for Home Bakers Challenge. Viji @ Virunthu Unna Vaanga gave us quite a few options to choose from. I made 2 different cookies as I had to bake cookies for two separate parties and what better way to try 2 recipes. Both of them turned out great.

Today I've Peanut butter cookies and I used Dorie Greenspan's recipe instead of Martha Stewart's recipe that was given to us by Viji. Martha Stewart's recipe only had 3 stars and since I was making these for a lunch party, I wanted to make use a recipe that would definitely work. So I used the recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From my Home to Yours cookbook.

Both the recipes were almost similar except for the addition of baking soda, chopped peanuts and granulated sugar. Dorie's recipe used chopped salted peanuts in the cookies whick the cookies a great texture and crunch. I subbed salted peanuts with unsalted roasted peanuts. Also the cookies were supposed to be rolled in sugar before baking, I skipped the step since I was using unsalted peanuts and I didn't want the cookies to be too sweet. I halved the recipe which made about 2 dozen cookies. 

Ingredients:

All purpose Flour - 2½cups
Baking Soda - 1tsp
Baking powder - ½tsp
Salt - ¼tsp
Nutmeg - pinch, freshly grated
Unsalted Butter - 1cup (2 sticks/ 8oz.), at room temperature
Peanut Butter - 1cup, crunchy or smooth (I used Trader Joe's Smooth peanut butter)
Light Brown Sugar - 1cup, packed
Granulated Sugar - ¾cup
Eggs - 2, large
Salted Peanuts - 1½cups, chopped (I only had roasted, unsalted peanuts and they worked just fine in the recipe)
Granulated sugar - ½cup, for rolling (optional)

Method:

• Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicon mats.
• Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt andf nutmeg.
• In the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add the peanut butter and beat for another minute.
• Next add the sugars and beat for 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and on low speed, add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they just disappear. Mix in the chopped peanuts.
• This will make a soft, mushy dough. Take a tablespoon full of dough, roll it between the palms and place them on the baking sheets, leaving 2" between the cookies. (Drop the dough balls in sugar before placing them on the baking sheet, if desired). Press the tines of the fork on the cookies in perpendicular direction to form the crisscross indentations.
• Bake for about 12 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back half the way through the baking. When done cookies will be lightly colored and still soft. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheets for a minute before transferring them onto the cooling rack with a wide spatula. Cool to room temperature.
• Repeat with the remaining dough, making sure to cool the baking sheets between batches.

Look who visited me while I was taking the pics. My 9 month old sneaked in on me and picked up a cookie for herself (of course she can't eat the cookie :-).