Peanut Butter Cookies

So you've mastered the chocolate chip cookie. You feel good about it. You've made them a few times and gotten rave reviews from your friends and family. But now that they know you can bake, they are getting greedy for more. Switch it up next time with these equally simple peanut butter cookies. And since you already know the basics from reading my Chocolate Chip Cookie blog, this will be super simple for you.

Peanut Butter Cookies
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (you can use crunchy or smooth, whatever your favorite is)
1 tablespoon milk

1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

First, mix (or "cream") the butter and sugars.

Next, add in the peanut butter, egg, milk and vanilla. To help get the peanut butter out of the measuring cup, spray a little Pam in the measuring cup before you add the peanut butter. This also works for anything sticky--molasses, honey or even oils.

How it should look after the eggs, vanilla, milk & peanut butter are mixed in. You'll definitely need to scrape down the sides of the bowl with the spatula.

Don't forget to mix the dry ingredients separately, and add them in little by little. A trick I use to avoid dirtying another bowl with this step: if you have a portion of a cup of flour that's called for, measure that out, and put it in the 1-cup measuring cup (that you already have dirty because the recipe called for whole cups of flour). Add in the salt and other dry ingredients and mix in the measuring cup, then add to the mixing bowl with the dough.

Once the flour is mixed in, you are ready to scoop.

Just like last time, I use one of those springy ice cream scoops which really makes scooping cookies a breeze. Not only can you scoop a bunch of cookies in a jiff, but because they are all the same size, they look better and also are guaranteed to cook evenly.

After you scoop them, you need to do one last step, since these are peanut butter cookies. We're gonna take a fork and make a criss-cross pattern. First, dip the fork in some flour (so it doesn't stick to the cookies). Then, press into the cookie dough.

Next, dip the fork into the flour again, and press it again at a 90 degree angle to the first press.

Bake for 10 minutes at 375. Cool on a cookie rack. Then serve with some milk:)

You can also freeze these once you've scooped them and pressed them, then bake them in smaller batches. I made these for my MBA class a bit ago and they were a BIG hit. Hope you enjoy:)