Ultimate Peanut Butter Cookies
And a big piece of news!
Well, yesterday was my 31st birthday. I treated myself to a fat breakfast burrito from Ceremonia Bakeshop and my friends took me out to dinner at the 126-year-old iconic Italian restaurant Bamonte’s, which has been on my list since I moved to Williamsburg. For the prices, I’m sorry to say the food was mid, but the company was anything but.
As if that weren’t enough, I also signed a lease on a new apartment! Our long national nightmare is over. If you have ever looked for real estate in New York City, you, like me, wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy. Thank you for being patient as I take a little time off of easygayoven to deal with IRL matters this month. And if you’ve been following along with this journey, thank you for not unfollowing me on Instagram as I begged for leads. In upcoming posts I’ll talk about where I’m going and what I’m going to miss about the current place I’ve called home for four years. Until then, I’ll be packing.
January is a weird time to be a baking recipe developer/Substack-er. People are going Whole 30 and swearing off sweets and carbs. People’s wallets are reeling after the holidays (Rocket Money ads are plastered to all my screens right now) so people are cutting back on subscriptions. Resolution season means that people are curbing their screen time, so they’re not really seeing to what recipes are being posted anyway. More generally, it seems like no one has a sense of what flavors to lean into after our taste buds have been blown out by sugary cookie boxes and decadent dinners.
I’ve heard at least one of these sentiment echoed by a few fellow food creators recently (the wellness girlies, however, are doing just fine). Besides citrus season, which is just getting going around this time, there isn’t a lot of fun seasonal produce to work with. February has a monopoly on chocolate recipes, obviously. And I certainly won’t be making “healthy” bakes just because it’s January — sorry. My mantra, when it comes to making baked goods with less sugar, less butter, or less processed ingredients has long been: It’s not a salad.
That’s why, at the start of every year, I have been leaning into one ingredient: peanut butter. It’s earthy, comforting, and when baked into something, takes off the saccharine edge. After back-to-school season, it takes a back seat during Orange and Brown Food Season (my loving name for the pumpkin-spice time) and over the holidays. That is, unless you’re someone who likes peanut butter kisses — I don’t. Because of that, it just feels like a welcome return.
That being said, don’t let this stop you from making these cookies all. year. long. I wanted peanuts and peanut butter to be absolutely pouring out of every orifice of this cookie. (Sorry.) I’ve had two bags of Reese’s peanut butter chips withering away in my pantry. Because I’m trying to clear out before my move, combined with my January peanut butter fixation, I knew that now was the time to make the ultimate peanut butter cookie.
This cookie has more peanut butter than flour in it. It stays creamy and chewy — not chalky, as so many peanut butter cookies can end up. I wanted these to be big, like the kind of cookie you’d get at the mall. They just look better, and feel more special, especially with roasted peanut halves studding the whole top surface of the cookie. That being said, I also give directions for making them the medium-size of my typical cookie recipes. A sprinkle of flakey sea salt after baking takes them over the top, in my professional opinion.
Please use creamy peanut butter spread for this recipe — not the grainy, “natural” kind you can make at home or crunchy grocery stores. To be even more clear, I’m talking about the type, such as Jif or Skippy, where the oil doesn’t separate out so you don’t have to mix it. You have every right to go off script here, but just know the cookies might not turn out the same.
Makes 9 large cookies or 15-16 medium cookies
Ingredients
