Another snow day, another baking adventure. This morning, I had a hankerin’ for peanut butter cookies and I decided to make them into hearts in honor of Valentine’s Day.   

Here’s the original recipe, courtesy of my trusty Better Homes & Garden cookbook:

- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon  baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/3 cup flour
- granulated sugar

In a large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.  Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and baking powder.  Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.  Beat in egg and vanilla until combined.  Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer.  Stir in any remaining flour.  If neccessary, cover and chill dough until easy to handle.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls.  Roll in additional granulated sugar to coat.  Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Flatten by making crisscross marks with the tines of a fork.  Bake at 375 for 7 to 9 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned.  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.  Makes 36 cookies

((My changes:  I have a heart-shaped cookie cutter that I used to shape the cookies.  I rolled them into balls about twice the size that the recipe suggests, and then pushed them into the cookie cutter to make the heart shape.  Even after that, I had to shape them a little with my hands.  It made 18 big heart-shaped cookies.))

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 5:35 pm and is filed under cooking + baking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.