Peanut Butter Cookies

Since I work with virtually all men (I have one fellow female in an office of 50 people) and I love to bake, I try to bring in goodies for the guys every Friday. This has become a ritual since I started working here. However, this Friday I have "the day off", I actually have to come in on Friday to work third shift so its not really a day off. However, the guys won't see me and I didn't want them to think I forgot about them. I made cookies for them a day early.

Last week the guys that work out in the lab on the other side of the plant from the office,found out that I bring in treats and since many of them don't come to the office they felt left out because they never get any treats.  Okay actually only Mike and Jeremy complained since those are the only two that I really talk to out in the lab. I see Mike every morning at 5 AM (damn farmers are really raisers aren't we) so he is about the only one that I talk to for an hour. Yesterday morning I asked him what his favorite cookies were and he first said 'chocolate chip". I replied with "but chocolate chip is boring." (I made of ton of chocolate chip cookies for deer camp last week and wasn't looking forward to making more.) I would have made them for him if that's what he really wanted though. Anyways he then said "peanut butter cookies are good too."

I  then had to look up a peanut butter cookie recipe because I didn't have one and after a few adaptations this is the one that I came up with. (This recipe contains no flour.)

First combine creamy peanut butter ( I wanted to try half crunchy and half creamy but my mother didn't have any crunchy in her pantry, so I will have to make these again and let you know they go with that combination), granulated sugar and the brown sugar.

Why is peanut butter so messy...?

Then mix with electric mixer until completely combined.

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Then mix in the baking soda, vanilla extract and salt, mixing well after each addition as well.

Using the small size cookie scoop, drop the cookies onto a greased cookie sheet. If you don't have a cookie scoop (I'd highly recommended getting one)  you can also just roll out about 1 inch balls. Either way will due.

Using a fork press the crisscross pattern into the cookies.

Bake in the oven at 350 ° F for 8 to 10 minutes,until edges are golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes before place on cooling rack.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of peanut butter
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 ° F.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter, granulated sugar and packed brown sugar.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
• Mix in the vanilla extract, baking soda, and salt, also mixing well after each addition.
• Using cookie scoop (or rolling balls in hands) drop cookies onto greased cookie sheet.
• Bake in oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until edges are golden brown. 
• Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then place cookies on cooling rack.

Enjoy the cookies with a large glass of milk.

Love,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

PS - I have been given good reviews on this recipe by my taste testers.

December 23rd, 2011 Update: I made these peanut butter cookies again for Mike and the shaft boys, so I made one batch with crunchy peanut butter and they loved them more then the original.