Peanut Butter Cookies

I used a recipe I found in a book called "Christmas Cookies" published by Oxmore house, 1986.  I have found that many of the recipes for Peanut Butter Cookies are very similar with a few tweaks here and there.  I tweaked this recipe a bit - 

Ingredients - 

1 Cup Shortening - I used 1/2 C regular and 1/2 C butter Crisco

1 Cup White Sugar

1 Cup Firmly packed Dark Brown Sugar

2 Eggs - room temp

1 Cup Peanut Butter - I used super chunk Skippy

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

3 Cups AP Flour

3/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda (I used a heaping 3/4)

I also added some salt

Directions - 

 - Cream Shortening in a large mixing bowl

 - Gradually add sugars - beat well

 - Add eggs on at a time, beat well after each addition

 - Add Peanut Butter and Vanilla, beat well

 - I sifted my flour, soda and salt then added gradually, mixing well.

 It is a bit on the dry/crumbly side.....

The recipe calls for shaping into balls of about 1 inch, I used a small #40 ice cream scoop so that they would all be the same size.  A #40 scoop is about 3/4 of an ounce.  After "balling" the mix I rolled the balls in just plain white sugar and then placed them on parchment covered cookie sheets (I use the same old jelly roll pans for everything)

... and by rolling the balls in sugar you do not need to dip the fork for pressing in flour - which I think gives the cookies a dusty look i do not like - and the sugar makes the cookies sparkle!!  The recipe says to place the cookies on a greased cookie sheet so that is another option - These really do not spread all that much so I crowded the pans a bit - make 12 at a clip. 

 - Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes - I found that these cookies where a bit bigger than the recipes calls for and took about 14 to 16 minutes per pan.

 - If you make 1 inch balls the recipe says the yield is 6 dozen, my yield was just at 4 dozen.

These were nice a crispy - and full of flavour!!!  I'll be making them again!!!!

Molasses Sugar Cookies

I love molasses on and in stuff and just love cookies.... and these spicy, chewy dark cookies fill the bill. This is a recipe from AllRecipes and posted by Karin C. I have been making a version of these for years, but this is probably the best recipe I have found to date.

Ingredients -

1 1/2 C Shortening
2 C White sugar
1/2 C Molasses
2 Eggs
4 C AP Flour
4 Teas Baking soda (yes 4)
2 teas Ground Cinnamon
1 Teas Ground Clove
1 Teas Ground Ginger
1 Teas Salt

Directions -

1 - Melt shortening - let cool

2 - In a mixing bowl put the sugar, eggs and molasses, beat very well. Add cooled melted shortening.

3 - In a separate bowl sift the dry ingredients together. Add the dry mixture a little at a time to the wet - mix well - this will be a bit on the stiff side after all the dry is incorporated.

4 - Chill the dough for a t least 3 or 4 hours, better if chilled overnight in the refrigerator.

5 - Take chilled dough and form into walnut sized balls( I used a small scoop to keep them uniform in size), roll in granulated sugar

(I rolled mine twice, Once through then went back and rolled them a second time - it makes the cookies a bit more sparkly) Place on a greased cookie sheet (I did not grease the pan, I used parchment paper - I like it better than greasing a pan).


6 - Bake at about 375 degrees for 8 to 10 mins, do not over bake or they will not be chewy.

7 - Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container to keep from getting overly crisp. If they do loose their softness, an easy way to restore it is to place a slice of fresh bread in the container with the cookies for a couple of hours or overnight and they will get soft again.