[CopyCat] Peanut Butter Cookies

One of my favourite things to bake with is peanut butter. I love the flavour and the texture, and just generally find it very satisfying. This recipe is not one that originated from my kitchen, but one I adapted and altered for other recipes. I really enjoy this recipe as the cookie is delicate, soft, and light, and isn't overpoweringly sweet. A word of caution: these cookies are fragile. Be careful when moving them, storing them, etc. The S.O. dropped a tin of 2 batches of these and essentially shattered the majority of them.

Fun fact: these cookies passed the non-low-carber taste test. While playing with the recipe I ended up with 4 or 5 dozen cookies and sent them with the S.O. to work. They ate them all and some people even asked for the recipes (I had sent 3 different cookies at the time). 

These peanut butter cookies in particular come from Paula Deen's Magical Peanut Butter Cookies. I only made a couple changes to the base recipe. I use Kraft Whipped Peanut Butter rather than creamy (though I made a batch with creamy peanut butter that turned out delicious). I lowered the baking time to about 7-8 minutes, too. Finally, I changed the batch sizes. Eighteen cookies per batch just seems weird to me for some reason, so I did 12 or 24.

The directions given are straightforward, but I will include a few words with pictures along the way.

These are the "regular" sized cookies, from a batch of 18. I prefer the batch of 32 because then I feel like I have more cookies.
Click here for the cookies in the back!

Nutritional Values:

	Calories	NetCarbs	Carbs	Fiber	Fat	Protein
Whole recipe	1190	56	72	16	101	54
Servings: ~12	66	4	6	1	8	5
Servings: ~24	50	2	3	1	4	2

Prep Time: about 15 minutes
Cooking Time: less than 10 minutes

Your Ingredients:

• 1 cup of your choice of peanut butter (As mentioned, I use Kraft Whipped Peanut Butter)
• 1 1/3 choice granulated sweetener (I'm using Splenda)
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Your Tools:

• a mixing bowl
• a spoon or spatula
• a cookie sheet and parchment paper or baking spray (or both)

The Directions:

As I said, the directions for this recipe are pretty simple. You can follow Paula Deen's directions as per the recipe link above, or the directions I will post here (which are basically the same, but with pictures!).

Step 1 -

Preheat your oven to 350F and prepare your cookie sheet with parchment paper, baking spray/grease, or both.

Combine all your ingredients in the mixing bowl. Use a spoon or spatula, or even your hands. Don't break out one of your electric mixers. Mix thoroughly until you get a thick, sticky dough-like texture.

I had a picture of this entire batch stuck to my spatula, hanging upside down, but I can't find it :(.
Remember - thick and sticky!

Step 2 -

Prepare your dough into balls roughly the size of... a quarter in diameter. Or a gumball? If you want more cookies with the same batch, your doughballs will obviously be smaller. 

Step 3 -

Here you have at least two options, or get creative. Either press your cookies down with your thumb/fingers, or use a fork and make a fancy crisscross. If you want to make a crisscross, be sure to dip your fork in the granulated sweetener in order to prevent the cookie from sticking to the fork.

Just before popping them in the oven.
You don't need much space between the cookies because the will not expand much, if at all.

 Step 4 -

Bake your cookies for about 7 or 8 minutes, remove and let cool for a few minutes before transferring. Make sure to eat one hot out of the oven... oh, my god. Definitely do that.

xo,
Jennifer