How’s that for the mantra of someone who really, really, really likes peanut butter?
Who is that nut for peanuts? It’s me. That’s my mantra. I repeat it frequently. I’m not kidding.
People, I am kidding. (I wouldn’t give my child up for adoption on account of a peanut allergy… I’d just love it less than its siblings;)
You might have gathered by this point that a) I am heartless and b) I love peanut butter. Let me qualify that statement. I love processed, supermarket, lots-of-added-sugar-and-salt peanut butter. The stuff I was never allowed to have as a kid. You see, we were an all-natural peanut butter family; ours came from the Herb and Spice, ladled into a plastic container from big vats at the back of the shop with puddles of oil glistening on top. It tasted okay, but oh, how I longed for the smooth, stiff spread that came from the Kraft jar with the cuddly teddy bear and the bright green top!
As soon as I became an adult, I revolted. Never again has natural peanut butter darkened my door. (I actually have to import my preferred brand from Canada because British peanut butter doesn’t have an appropriately silky texture.) While you may balk at my childish preference, processed PB does have its uses for bakers. While I think perfectly good baking results can be achieved with both – Baking Bites offers a good discussion of the differences – sometimes processed really is called for in the sweet kitchen. Try making homemade Reese peanut butter cups with natural PB and you will be sorely disappointed!
Peanut butter cookies are a good example of something I like best when made with the ‘fake’ stuff. I was browsing The Kitchn last week when I saw these cookies – a recipe which the author said eventually won her her husband. I was especially taken with how chewy they looked, a quality that is best achieved with processed PB.
First, I should say that these cookies aren’t going to win me any husbands around here. Edward hates nuts. With this wedge between us, it’s a wonder the relationship has progressed this far. Not only do I never get to eat my favourite peanut noodles, but on the rare occasion I bake something containing nuts, he gets a slightly hurt, somewhat offended, ever so unimpressed look on his face, like it’s a personal affront to him. So really, I suppose it wouldn’t matter if my child couldn’t eat peanuts; I’m already in a kind of nutless prison.
But for those of us who can and do eat peanut butter, cookies are a lovely way to ingest it, don’t you think? And these cookies are good. Maybe not husband winning, but good. They have many qualities to admire, particularly their soft, squishy texture; too many peanut butter cookies are hard and a little on the dry side. The one improvement I would make is a stronger peanut flavour. I would definitely make these again but next time I’d experiment with a larger quantity of peanut butter.
In the meantime, I have a lot of cookies to eat. No one else around here is going to help me.
Husband Winning Peanut Butter Cookies from The Kitchn
Note on the recipe: I followed this recipe to the letter. My one suggestion would be to increase the baking time by at least 3 minutes if you are making the suggested size of cookie. My centres were highly undercooked and I ended up putting them back in the oven to bake a few minutes longer. They still turned out moist and chewy.