Puffy Peanut Butter Cookies . . . the chewy ones.

I came across a peanut butter cookie recipe the other day that looked pretty good, on a blog called Julia's Album .  I like puffy peanut butter cookies.   I prefer my peanut butter cookies to be a bit soft and chewy rather than hard and crunchy.   These looked perfect and not only that, but her recipe only made between 12 and 15 cookies, which is just the perfect amount to have here in this house because we are only two.  People that is.

 

These turned out really nice.  Soft and puffy, with a nice crisp sugar coating on the outside which contrasted very well with the almost gooey insides.



If I had to try to describe the consistency of these cookies, I would say they are somewhere between a cake and a brownie.  Somewhat fudgy and quite moreish.



I'd go so far as to say it's a probably a good thing there are only 12 of them, because that limits the damage I can do with them.  ☺

 

*Puffy Peanut Butter Cookies*
Makes 12 

Printable Recipe  

Soft and puffy with a nice sugar crunch coating. 

45g of creamy peanut butter (1/4 cup)

2 TBS unsalted butter at room temperature

100g soft light brown sugar (1/2 cup packed)

pinch of salt
1 medium free range egg

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

105g of plain flour, sifted (3/4 cup, do see note below)

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 TBS of granulated sugar for coating

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.  Line a large baking sheet with some parchment paper.  Set aside.  (alternately butter the pan well.)

Cream the butter and peanut butter together well with a wooden spoon, beating until smooth.  Beat in the brown sugar and salt.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.  Sift in the baking powder.  Gradually beat in the flour.   Shape into 12 equal sized balls, rolling them between your palms.  Put the granulated sugar into a bowl.  Drop each ball into sugar and roll it around to coat and then place on the baking sheet, leaving 2 inches in between each. 

Bake until the cookies are nicely puffed and beginning to brown around the edges.  The tops will look crackly.  This will take about 12 minutes.   Allow to sit on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes prior to lifting off to a wire rack to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container.

Note:  To measure the flour.  Sift your flour well and then spoon it into the measuring cup.  Carefully remove any excess with a knife, sweeping it evenly across the top of the measuring cup without pressing down.



Allow me to have a bit of a moan here.   This is the peanut butter I used.  It's quite tasty actually.  Very peanutty.  My moan is about the shape of the jar . . .  those bulging shapes on the top and bottom of the jar make it damn near impossible to clear the peanut butter out of them.   I did manage to get it out of the top curve by using my finger (best tool ever invented) but my fingers were not long enough to reach the bottom . . .  and I could not get a rubber spatula to bend into the curve enough to scrape the peanut butter out.  Most annoying, which meant that probably about a quarter cup or so of the peanut butter in the jar went to waste.



I decided to give the jar to Mitzie  to clean out.  I figured she would enjoy the challenge, and she did, but even she couldn't get most of the peanut butter from that bottom bulge.  Sigh . . .