chewy peanut butter cookies

The other day, I mentioned the Gumbopalooza party our friend Kemp recently threw. He spent all day cooking three amazing kinds of gumbo, plus vegetarian red beans and rice (you don't remotely miss the sausage, they are so good), and then invited everyone he knew over to taste. Well, you can't go to a party empty-handed, so I brought chocolate two-way cookies and peanut butter cookies.

I'm always on the hunt for a great, chewy peanut butter cookie recipe. The ones at work are actually really good, and I made those recently for a client (forgetting that we use crunchy pb at work and all I had was smooth - oops! - but they were still good). But I still troll the interweb for recipe ideas, and this one got me. Her pictures are great, but in truth, most pb cookies look kind of the same, so the proof had to be in the proverbial pudding... YUM! Nice and chewy and soft, but not mushy. Great taste. And the leftovers (can you believe there were leftovers?) held up perfectly in both taste and consistency for several days.

I made these a little bigger than usual - generous, but not gigantic - and I experimented with different ways to flatten them: a serving fork (larger tines, wider apart), a potato masher, and the pusher from the Cuisinart. All worked great, and I liked the variety. I also stole an idea (can't remember from where, probably Tastespotting) to drizzle chocolate in the indentations. It looked cute, the chocolate didn't outshine the pb taste, and anyway, who can resist the chocolate/pb combo?

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

1 stick butter

3/4 cup (7 1/8 ounces) peanut butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) brown sugar

1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar plus extra for rolling

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups (6 3/8 ounces) flour

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350F. Beat together butter, peanut butter, and vanilla. Mix in both sugars, baking powder, and salt. Gradually mix in the flour in two additions. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Roll dough into 1 1/2" balls and then roll the balls in sugar. Place on the cookie sheet and use a fork, a potato masher, the Cuisinart pusher, or whatever you like with an interesting texture to flatten the cookies. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until light golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for several minutes, then move them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for several days. Makes about 2 dozen.

plain...
and decorated!