Ultimate Peanut Butter Cookies

I was in the mood to bake cookies today and the end result was very yummy!

I wanted to share this peanut butter cookie recipe with you so that you can enjoy it too.

The original link is here.

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Cream together butter and sugars until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat in egg and vanilla.
4. Stir in peanut butter.
5. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add to peanut butter mixture and blend in.
6. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet and crisscross mark them with a floured fork.
7. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until cookies just start to colour around the edges.

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Notes:

• The quality of the baking sheet can make a difference. I had two kinds of cookie sheets. The air insulated ones allow the cookies to cook for longer before the edges turn brown. This results in a crisper cookie. The normal, thin cookie sheet will result in chewier cookies because it required only about 5 minutes before the edges turned brown. I took them out earlier to avoid burnt bases.
• I made one massive cookie, about 5 inches wide at least. It required more time to bake and it would benefit from the insulated cookie sheet so that it can bake for longer before getting brown around the edges. I had it on the thin cookie sheet so I compensated by opening the oven door a lot to check on it. I think that the side effect of that is a lower temperature. Also, I turned the oven off once the edges began to brown and just let it bake in there for a little longer as the oven cooled. I still kept checking on it because I hate burnt cookies. The end result was a very large cookie with crunchy edges and a softer, chewier center. My sweetheart was very pleased with it.
• My sweetheart suggests adding peanut butter chips to this cookie to push it to the next level of awesomeness :)
• October 2011 - I tried this recipe with natural peanut butter and the cookies turned out great!  They are slightly less sweet, which I like.  I cut up some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and added one piece to the middle of some of these cookies and everyone loved this.  

Enjoy!