the recipe: aunt lisie’s peanut butter cookies

We’ve been doing a lot of baking around here lately. It’s no wonder my pants don’t fit. 

Gus stayed home from school on Wednesday with a (conveniently temporary) fever. After cartoons, breakfast with dad, hot cocoa with mom, a little craft store shopping, errands, and some coloring, Gus decided he wanted to “make a project” with the Kitchen-Aid mixer. We searched for recipes together and he picked out peanut butter cookies.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I am a huge fan of the peanut butter cookie. I do not, however, like chocolate in my peanut butter cookies. If I’m going to eat chocolate, I’m going to really go for the chocolate. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy a reese’s or four. Love them. But we are talking about baking here. Let’s not cloud our peanut butter cookies or banana bread or pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips. I’m probably starting a riot somewhere at this very moment. You are welcome to have your own opinion as long as you know that I won’t change my mind on this one.

I am fortunate to have some very talented bakers in my family who have very generously shared recipes with me. I am even more fortunate to have an aunt who can bake anything (seriously) and who – sit down – doesn’t like chocolate. Yep. She could just pass on the whole thing. Makes the best chocolate cake ever, but I’ve never seen her eat it. This is good for the rest of the family because she loves to bake and the rest of us love to eat. Win, win. It is also good for me in this case because her peanut butter cookie recipe does not contain chocolate chips.

I remember the first time I had these cookies. Lisie spent weeks making an assortment of Christmas cookies which she mailed to everyone in the family. The peanut butter cookies were by far the best I had ever tasted. Just the right crunch and they had peanut butter chips in them. Who knew? This is the only peanut butter cookie recipe that I use. We all make a lot of choices every day. Isn’t it nice sometimes to eliminate your options and just go with something you know is good?

The original recipe comes from a New England cookie cookbook, but it has been modified quite a bit since. This is a simple recipe. Cream your butter and sugars. Add your eggs and vanilla. Mix in your peanut butter (I use Adams natural crunchy, but you can use whatever is handy). Mix in your dry ingredients. Stir in your chips. Bake. Nothing to it. Really. Gus was totally in charge of making these today and he’s not quite four. But, boy, are these delicious.