Peanut Butter Baby Steps

While ultimately I would LOVE to turn a few batches of cookies into thousands of dollars raised for charity, I am accepting my limitations and starting small. Raising awareness or paying homage to some often forgotten causes will be my starting point.

But the real first step: improve baking skills. Yes, this is the fun part!

In the spirit of starting small (and making my way up of course), I decided to whip up a batch of the smallest and cutest little peanut butter button cookies I’ve ever stumbled across on this Internet.

Found at 17andbaking.com, this recipe promised bite size peanut buttery goodness that I just couldn’t resist.

I followed the recipe exactly as its written adding an extra 10 minutes to chill (I was multitasking as I often find myself) and made about 10 dozen button sized cookies, 1 dozen slightly bigger ones with Hershey’s kisses instead of chocolate chips, and 4 basic peanut butter cookies.

The whole process took me the better part of two hours, but the payoff was great. The little cookies were a big hit at my sister’s and my joint graduation party — Go Blue! (and now Go Gators as well for the little one!)

Peanut Butter Button Cookies: (Recipe from 17andbaking.com)

Makes about 15 dozen tiny cookies

• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Granulated sugar for rolling
• Chocolate chips (any type) + Hershey's kisses for bigger cookies

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
• Beat peanut butter and shortening until well mixed, then beat in the two sugars until light 
• Add the egg, milk, and vanilla and beat until fluffy
• In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together
• Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture gradually, blending after every addition

Note: Dough is easiest to work with while cold. Refrigerate before rolling first batch and in between additional batches

• Using a 1/4 teaspoon, scoop small amounts of dough and roll into 1/2 inch balls 
• Roll in granulated sugar and place on ungreased baking sheets
• Bake 5-6 minutes and remove from oven (for bigger cookies, bake about 7-8 minutes)
• Immediately press a chocolate chip (or Hershey's Kiss) into the center of each cookie
• Let cookies cool a minute, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

To make Peanut Butter Cookies:

• Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets and press down gently with the tines of a fork
• Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden

The cookies with chocolate chocolate chips disappeared especially fast.

Photographing these cookies was fun as well!

 

I also brought a plateful of cookies outside to capture some natural sunlight.

Guess what happens when you mix chocolate with Florida sunshine?

it melts!! (in under 5 minutes)

Woops! Lesson learned

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