Cozy Peanut Butter Cookies

Mmmmm, cookies. :0)

As promised, I am back to share a recipe. After my morning brew, which is a Kahlua blend, (Yum! No real Kahlua however, disappointing as that is) I needed to clean the house after woefully neglecting it for a week. I really needed to clean P's high chair from potaoes, pizza and egg. (For those whom I've just disgusted, let me tell you that all of those items are from one amazing pizza at our local favorite pizza place.) After all of that, I sit here at our table, watching the autumn leaves fall, and deciding which recipe to share. It's a hard decision really, there are so many! At the end of the day, it's Peanut Butter.

A staple of most kitchens, you may use either crunchy or creamy peanut butter, but I prefer creamy myself. I will tell you that at the bakery the ones who picked peanut butter the most were men, hands down! I do not know why that is, but it is a favorite at my husband's place of work as well. (all men, by the way) Oddly, peanut butter is not so much a favorite of mine, however having said that, I can eat these by the dozen!

This may yield a lot of cookies, please keep in mind that this is less than a quarter of a bakery batch! I like to roll the dough up in parchment, and place it in the freezer, slicing off only what I want to bake for a day. I recommend this for you as well, as your dough will keep in your freezer for weeks, a deep freezer even longer!

2 Cups butter
3 Cups peanut butter
2 Cups brown sugar
2 Cups white granulated sugar
5 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons soda
5 Cups flour

Cream butter and sugar together, adding peanut butter. Slowly add eggs, one at a time. Add your dry ingredients next, being careful not to overmix. Overmixing cookie dough leads to flattened cookies, so as fun as mixing is, don't overdo it! Now would be the time to add extra goodies if you like, chocolate chips or toffee pieces are favorites.

As stated above, I roll my dough into long tubes of parchment paper, and pop into the freezer.
If baking right away, roll a heaping (and by heaping, I mean NOT bitesize here) ball of dough, place on your cookie sheet, and flatten with a fork. (Feel free to make fun patterns, I do) I get approximately 6 to a cookie sheet if that tells you how large I make my cookies. I then top my cookies before baking with more brown sugar. Sugar is to Stefanie what butter is to Paula Deen. While baking the brown sugar turns into crispy goodness. :0) You will bake these at 350 degrees. Here is where it gets tricky. All ovens are different, and if you are lucky enough to have a convection oven, you better check them at about 7 or 8 minutes. For the rest of us, please check at about 12 minutes. When they are slightly puffy, and the tops are just starting to crack, they are done. Cookies will continue baking after you pull them out, so slightly underbaking is key unless you like dunkers.

There you have it, my first shared recipe. For those who know me, that was a very big deal. I may need a nap. :0)
Enjoy,
Stefanie