I love it when a plan comes
together. Why yes, yes I am channeling Hannibal Smith of “The A-Team”
(shout-out to my dad, brother Tony and roommate Chuck on that one), but it’s
just nice when something works out perfectly. Particularly a recipe that claims
to contain the blueprint to a perfect no-fuss baking experience.
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| Spoiler alert, yummy cookies await! |
Too often those “easy-to-follow,”
“simple” recipes end up being deceptively difficult (cough, Brownie bites on steroids, cough).
But this marvelously manageable pin of
four-ingredient peanut butter cookies was just as uncomplicated as advertised.
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| Peanut butter and sugar (2 of the 4 ingredients) |
The pin links to a picture-heavy
blog post on the PBS Parents site called Kitchen Explorers. It’s a
kitchen-focused blog that has a distinctively family-friendly air, with tons of
kid-approved and kid-focused recipes.
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| Ready for egg, vanilla (the other 2 ingredients) |
This particular post is by Alice Currah who happens
to also publish SavorySweetLife.com, a popular food blog that has an awesome
array of categories so you can easily navigate the site to find blogs on topics
like “Cake Decorating,” “Coffee Drinks,” “Beans and Legumes,” “Casseroles” and
more.
But I digress, back to these
awesomely easy peanut butter cookies.
Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter (can be
smooth or crunchy)
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
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| I doubled the recipe |
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking
sheet with parchment paper.
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| Now that is some peanut-buttery cookie dough |
2. Using a hand or stand mixer, mix the peanut butter, sugar,
egg and vanilla on low speed until well combined.
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| Resist the urge to just pop one in your mouth |
3. Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop about 1 1/2 tablespoons
of dough 1 1/2-inches apart onto the baking sheet. If you don't have a cookie
scoop, drop the dough with a spoon.
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| Criss-cross! |
4. Flatten the dough balls the tines of a fork, making a cross
pattern on the cookies.
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| So good! |
5. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until they are golden
around the edges. Allow the cookies to rest on the counter for 2 minutes before
transferring them to a cooling rack.
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| I'm virtually incapable of not crumbling at least one cookie, but then again, it's a great excuse to eat one right away |
How it went
This is so straightforward that even I couldn’t manage to
muck it up even though I doubled the recipe.
I hand-mixed the ingredients, starting with the peanut butter (I
used creamy) and sugar and adding the egg and vanilla after I already had a
pretty even consistency.
I don’t have a cookie scoop so I just dropped the dough with
a spoon, then delved in to leave that tell-tale crisscross pattern with a fork.
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| Yes, I have to eat this cookie right this second. |
My cookies were perfect after 11 minutes, though a little
crumbly even after the requisite two minutes on the cookie sheet. Just be careful when you’re using a spatula to transfer them to a
cooling rack — or in my case a parchment lined tray — and you’ll be as golden as
these cookies.
These cookies were very soft (though I’m sure if you prefer
crunchy cookies baking them a little longer would do the trick) and delicious. They’re
gluten-free and I honestly thought they were easier to make and tastier than
traditional peanut-butter cookies with flour.
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| I'm getting hungry just looking at these cookies! |
I can't wait to try them with crunchy peanut butter!
Follow my Mission: Pinpossible board on Pinterest.
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