Amazing Peanut Butter Cookies

20 years ago I thought I had found the perfect peanut butter cookie.  I’ve used Mary Estella’s recipe from her Natural Foods Cookbook since.

But, since I have been cooking a Traditional Human Diet for about 10 years now, I have been playing around with different recipes; I wanted one with more fat and less sweetener. So I’ve tried about 10 different recipes since…all were good, but not great.  I want melt in your mouth, like a shortbread cookie, texture.  But, I want some crunch on the outside, and lots of peanut butter flavor.

Finally I turned to Cook’s Illustrated, my holy grail of cooking websites how to’s.  In case you haven’t discovered it yet, it is the ONLY website I pay to join, year after year!  Their recipes from America’s Test kitchen are always spot on, and they explain the science of why they work. Their product and kitchen equipment reviews are absolute perfection.  You could spent 2 or 3 months reading everything on the site and it would be the equivalent of going to cooking school..minus the hands on instruction.

So I read their recipe, and then set to play with it.  Here’s my recipe!

1/2 pound salted butter (2 sticks) at cool room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar, processed in food processor for 30 seconds, or superfine sugar
2/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup peanuts, dry-roasted, salted, blended in food processor with sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 whole egg plus 1 yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sweet rice flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1.    Cream butter, sugar, peanut butter, and salt in workbowl of electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add yolk, beat well then add whole egg and vanilla; continue beating until well incorporated.  Meanwhile, sift sweet rice flour, baking soda and baking powder together. Stir in peanuts that you have blended into a fine powder in the food processor

2.    Adjust oven racks to upper and lower middle positions. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

3.    Add flour mixture; beat over low speed until flour is just mixed.  Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour. (Can be refrigerated up to 2 days or double-wrapped and frozen 1 month.)

4.    Form dough into desired shape. I make them about walnut size, they will puff up and spread out. Place 12 dough shapes on buttered cookie sheet. Using a fork wet in water, press each cookie flat and then go back to make a cross section.  Bake, rotating cookie sheets halfway through baking if necessary, until evenly golden brown, about 18 minutes.  You can sprinkle either salt or sugar lightly on each cookie before baking if desired.

5.     Cool to room temperature on cookie sheet.

6.    Use thin-bladed spatula to transfer cookies to cooling rack.  Repeat.

7.    Place in airtight container (can be stored up to 3 weeks).