Saturday 18 October 2008

The quest for the perfect peanut butter cookie

Years ago I made some fantastic peanut butter cookies. They were everything a peanut butter cookie should be, crumbly, peanutty and delicious. I would love to make them again but I have no idea where the recipe came from!
So now I'm on a quest to find the perfect recipe, these cookies from Serious Eats are my first attempt.Unfortunately these aren't 'The cookies', don't get me wrong they are really good but these are soft and chewy, not crumbly like the cookies I remember. So the quest continues...

11 comments:

Amanda said...

You're welcome to try my favorite recipe. They're good--I promise!

Alicia Foodycat said...

My favourite peanut cookie has no flour in it - just peanut butter, sugar and an egg. So delicious! Yours look absolutely perfect though.

Hopie said...

I can't help you there but I wish you good luck on your quest!

Sylvie said...

Sam, that is so annoying, isn't it. I hate it when I loose recipes like that! I have to say though, that even those aren't THE cookies, they look pretty damn fine to me.

Sam said...

Amanda: That might be the recipe! I will try them this week, as soon as I have more peanut butter.

Foodycat: I've seen recipes like that but have never tried them. It sounds strange but if you say it's good I'll try it!

Hopie: Thanks!

Sylvie: It is really annoying, those cookies were so good as well!

Anonymous said...

I used to live in the States and my Mum used to make chewy Peanut Butter cookies. I loved them! She has lost the recipe over the years so now I will try the one you made! I like chewy cookies. My kids hate peanut butter but Im baking them for myself!

Laura Paterson said...

Oh, I like my pb cookies chewy! Good luck with your hunt (have you checked out peanut butter boy's blog??

Anonymous said...

I have a great recipe for peanut butter cookies. Let me know if you need another to try.

Anonymous said...

This is the basically the recipe I use: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?recipeId=35542

The only difference is that I use all butter/marg instead of half butter and half shortening. I know this recipe is similar to the one you tried, but the amounts of baking soda and powder are very different so the resulting texture will be different.

I would make sure to use "natural" (doesn't have to be organic or expensive) smooth peanut butter. I think most peanut butters in the UK are (even ASDA's and Tesco's own brand), but basically the fewer the ingredients the better. The most important thing is that it doesn't have added sugar.

If you like sweet cookies then definitely dip the fork in sugar before doing the crisscross (or roll the dough balls in sugar before flattening). If you don't like sugar then don't.

Also, I just thought of one last thing that you really should try. Get a digestive biscuit, spread some peanut butter on it and dust with powdered sugar. Then eat. It's my favorite thing to do when I want a peanut butter cookie but don't feel like making a whole batch.

Let me know how you get on! I'm from America (aka where we put peanut butter on everything) but now that I live in England, I love getting others addicted to peanut butter.

Anonymous said...

Try the recipe at www.cookingforengineers.com. They are delicious, buttery, and crispy - my new go-to recipe.

Joan said...

I am so happy to have found your blog. I am an American married to an Englishman who likes his
traditional English food. A big problem is, he likes it the way his mother (who is no longer
living) cooked it. Now, with your blog, I have some recipes for some of his favorites. Maybe
not exactly how his mother did it, but it will have to do.

Now for Peanut Butter Cookies. I can't give you a recipe because my recipe is for American ingredients. The flour is different, the baking powder is different, and the peanut butter is different. American recipes just do not work with British ingredients.

Everyone has a different idea of what the perfect Peanut Butter Cookie is. The perfect Peanut
Butter Cookie is the one their grandmother made and she probably didn't even have a written
recipe.

My grandmother's Peanut Butter Cookies were out of this world. They were crumbly but not hard.
They were soft but not chewy. Can I make them? No!

I do know that the kind of peanut butter you use makes a difference. The peanut butter we can buy
in the grocery store is homogonized and it has fillers in it. Using a pure peanut butter, the kind where the oil separates and you have to mix it in, makes the best cookie.

I don't know where you can get it in England. Maybe a health food store? Or grind your own.