Every once in a while I get a hankering for tea and a crumpet. Yesterday afternoon I gave in to my craving and stopped by a Highlands neighborhood café and bakery called  ‘6 Generous Servings’. When I first looked in the pastry case all there was left were cookies, of which I am not the hugest fan. I’m still not sure what made me decide to grab a few for the road anyways and I am so glad I did. I will have to say that the peanut butter cookie I had yesterday was the best [peanut butter] cookie I have ever had-crusty and crunchy on the outside, perfectly browned, and soft and chewy on the inside-a cookie enigma to me still!

I got so inspired by 6GS’s perfect cookie that I decided to make it my life’s mission to make perfect cookies…OK, maybe just a few Sundays in the Mistress Test Kitchen.

Attempt #1

To make it my own, I took an Allrecipes.com highest voted peanut butter cookie recipe and made a few changes based on some of the comments:

TKMPB Cookie 1.

1 C Butter (I used Organic Valley)

1 ¼ C Peanut Butter (1 C fresh ground I had in the fridge ¼ C Earth Balance Creamy)

1 C Sugar (I used Organic)

1 C Brown Sugar (ditto)

2 Eggs (Grant Family Farms-fairly large ones)

2 ¼ C Flour (All purpose Organic from King Arthur)

1 t baking powder

½ t Salt (I used Morton’s Kosher Coarse)

1 ½ t baking soda

1 T Vanilla (I used Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla  Bean Paste)

I creamed the eggs and the sugars first, then added the softened butter and peanut butter, all done with my KitchenAid mixer on medium/high. I added the salt, soda and baking powder and let it whirl for a bit. Then in went the flour one cup at a time, with the mixer still on, I just sifted in there mid whirl.

The batter got scooped up and wrapped in plastic, spanked**, and refrigerated for one hour.

I baked ice-cream scooper-size balls (flattened with tiny fork) for 9 minutes at 350. That wasn’t long enough, so I got them in for 2 more minutes. I think 11 minutes would be good, but next time I’ll try 9 minutes at 375, for comparison-I’ll try the same recipe.

I cooled the cookies and they settled quite a bit-but I left them out while Mr. Mistress and I went out and they were pretty much perfect when we came back 5 hours later-chewy insides, crunchy outsides…just a little flat.

OK…the search for the best recipe goes on….

**I don’t know if there is actually any scientific proof that making your cookies with a little flair will make them taste any better, but I do know that spanking a freshly plastic-wrapped cookie dough ball is not only naughty and fun, but also gets rid of the air bubbles. I do this only because I usually mix my dough longer than most recipes call for…well…maybe not JUST for that reason… :-)

Send some cookies to our Soldiers:

http://www.treatthetroops.org/

http://soldiersangels.org/index.php?page=angel-bakers