Peanut Butter Cookies

My kids go crazy for peanut butter cookies. If you want to drive them really wild, put a few chocolate chips in. For years I tried to find the perfect PB cookie recipe with no success; they were dry and hard as hockey pucks. I went to my friend Kip for advice and he posted this little gem.

Chunky peanut butter works best in these cookies; for this batch I was forced to use creamy and tried dressing them up with some chopped peanuts. Next time I'll go back to the chunky stuff.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter (I like to use chunky peanut butter, but that's just a personal preference)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in scant 1/3 cup hot water
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Cream shortening, peanut butter, and sugars. Beat in egg. Then add water and baking soda with the dry ingredients. Roll the dough into balls and bake at 350-375 degrees until done (about 12-13 minutes).

You can tell these are done when they're golden brown but still a little gooey. They'll cook a little more after you take them out of the oven. You want them slightly underdone in order to preserve the soft cookie goodnes.

Ginger Cookies

To me this is a perfect fall cookie recipe. The spice reminds me of harvest time somehow, and even the color is right for the season. This recipe comes from my friend Kip (see here), and as his headline suggests, they are big and soft. They have a lovely ginger snap flavor, but are much more luxurious to eat.

Big Soft Ginger Cookies

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
¼ cup molasses
2 tablespoons white sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut-sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven.

Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container. Yields approximately 24 cookies.

Peanut Butter Fingers

I found this delicious little recipe on In My Kitchen. The author of that blog recounts her childhood memories of having this as part of a Utah school lunch. I am a native Utahn, and don't remember having them for lunch in elementary school (although I do remember some incredible peanut butter cookies, the only peanut cookies I would eat at that point in my life). But they are awfully good.

Warning: this recipe makes a lot of cookie bars. It's baked in a jelly roll pan, which we call a cookie sheet at our house. It's something like 16 x 9. So either make it when you're going to a very large gathering, or plan on having it around for a few days. I made it on Monday of this week (which was spring break), and we still had lingering leftovers by Thursday. It holds up well over time, though, and the kids were in heaven with readily available snacks all week.

Peanut Butter Fingers

3/4 cup butter or margarine

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

Cream these ingredients together and then add:

3/4 cup peanut butter, cream until smooth

Note: We used creamy peanut butter because we had a surplus of it and because the kids prefer chunky on their sandwiches. But I think chunky PB would work great, and would add a little nuttiness to the mix.

Add:

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons vnilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups oats

1 1/2 cups flour

Mix together and pat down into a jellyroll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Let the cookie substance cool a little, but while it is still warm, spread a think layer of peanut butter over the top. After it has cooled quite a bit, add the frosting on top:

Frosting

6 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

4 3/4 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon cocoa

1/4 cup milk

Blend frosting until smooth and spread over cookies.

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

I've been thinking lately about a kind of cookie I made when I was a kid. I remembered that it had both oatmeal and coconut in it, and that I loved it. Recently our friends Steve and Laura gave us a HUGE bag of white chocolate chips. This cookie seemed like the perfect opportunity to use them.

I found this recipe on recipezaar.com. It called for raisins, which didn't sound that great for my raisin-boycotting family. So I substituted the white chocolate chips, which were dreamy with this particular combination of flavors. Also, after the first time I made it, I realized that the recipe didn't call for salt, and it really seemed to need it. So you'll see my modified version of the recipe below.

The comments on the recipezaar version noted that the recipe made huge quantities of cookies. I didn't find it to be all that outlandishly volumnious, but then again, there are nine people in our household and we like to make our cookies a little on the large side. The recipe probably made between 2-3 dozen of generous-sized cookies.

Also, watch the cooking time. These aren't good if they're over done.

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In mixing bowl, cream shortening, butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until blended. 

In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients except coconut and chocolate chips. When all other dry ingredients are blended, add the coconut and the chocolate chips. Combine wet and dry ingredients until moist.

Drop on a greased cookie sheet about 1-2 inches apart (I make them the size of a generous teaspoon). Bake for ten minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven immediately.

Shamelessly Stolen Oatmeal Cookies

Normally when I post a recipe, it's something that I've found somewhere else and have modified a bit to make it my own. In a couple of cases I've actually come up with what I think of as totally original recipes. In this case, I've borrowed a recipe wholesale from the blog of my high school friend Kip. My kids have embraced this recipe so enthusiastically that they start singing for joy as soon as they smell them cooking in the oven. Kip has a great story about how he came to have this recipe which you can find here. But if the recipe is what you're really looking for, I've taken the liberty of copying it part and parcel here (although I did change the name of the recipe and added in the cooking time that I like best). They're wonderful cookies.

Shamlessly Stolen Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups oats
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Cream sugars and shortening. Blend in vanilla and eggs. Then add dry ingredients, oats, and nuts. Roll in balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown, about 14 minutes.

Almond Cookies

If I have a signature cookie, this is it. I got the recipe from a college roommate, and it is one of my most-requested specialties. They aren't a family favorite, but they are a personal favorite for both me and eight-year-old Anna. She requested them for her birthday treat this year at school ("Because everybody else brings chocolate chip.") When she saw me uploading photos of them for a blog post, she said, "But those are our special cookies! We don't want just anybody making them, do we?"

They are a little chewier (read: softer) than traditional Chinese almond cookies. We don't make them often, but we do usually make them at Christmas time.

Almond Cookies

½ c. margarine
½ c. white sugar
½ c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
1 ½ c. flour
½ teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ c. finely chopped almonds
½ c. whole almonds
Cream margarine, white sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in egg and almond extract. Add combined flour, soda and salt. Mix well. Stir in chopped almonds. Chill (Note: I don't believe that I have ever chilled these cookies in all my many years of making them, and they almost always turn out great. But if you wish to chill, chill away). Shape level tablespoons full of dough into balls. Place two inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet; press a whole, blanched almond into the top of each ball. Bake at 360 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned. Let stand one minute before removing from cookie sheet.

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

There is nothing so deliciously basic as a chocolate chip cookie. Yet I've found that most chocolate chip cookie recipes are anything but fool proof. I've also found that the chocolate chip recipe that works at one house may not work so well at another. Could it be a difference in ovens? A few years ago we moved several blocks south and had to find a new cookie recipe. I don't think it was a climate change that made the difference.

So here's the cookie recipe that works for us now.


Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Cream margarine, shortening and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well and add dry ingredients. Mix in chips and nuts. Drop by spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for ten minutes.