Or, When Things Don’t Quite Turn Out.
That’s right, I share with you my failures as well! Well, some of them. The photogenic ones.
The original source for this recipe was BakingBlonde‘s lovely post on the topic. I mean, look at those pictures? Who wouldn’t want to make these cookies?? I don’t even like peanut butter, and I still thought they looked awesome, so I gave it a shot (plenty of other people like them, and it’s always a struggle to find recipes that aren’t dry as bones).
In the beginning, all looked well:
Beautiful raw cookie dough
(They’re sprinkled with powdered sugar because this dough just <b> drank</b> up the powdered sugar I’d rolled them in, and I wanted my crackly crust.)
It wasn’t until I checked on them near the end of baking time that disaster struck. Instead of lovely, high cookies with deep crinkles, I had this:
Flat, flat, flat cookies
Well, the crinkles are there, but they were oh so very flat. Extremely flat. Still tasty, if PB cookies are your thing – they were moist and delicious, and held up at my in-laws’ house for over a week (I don’t know how they do it). And I bet they’d be really great with some chocolate ganache sandwiched between two of them. But still, not what I was going for.
This recipe made a lot of dough, so I’d rolled and frozen the other 3/4ths of it. I decided to give them a second chance. Cut off the rolls, dropped the pieces into powdered sugar, and popped into the oven. This time, they came out higher, but drier (the dough had obviously done what PB cookie dough likes to do and hidden away all of the moisture while it was resting in the freezer). Still nothing like BB’s lovely pictures.
Ah, well, the search continues. Anyone have a PB cookie recipe they’d love to find at their local coffee shop?
The Recipe:
From BakingBlonde‘s grandmother, among other sources
Peanut Butter Crinkle Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
2 tsps vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup powdered sugar (or more as needed for rolling)
Preheat oven to 350.
Line baking sheets with parchement paper.
Place powdered sugar in shallow bowl.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and peanut butter. Once combined beat in the white sugar, and brown sugar until well blended. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
In a large bowl wisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gently add to creamed mixture and mix until almost combined.
Chill dough for 10-20 minutes.
Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into balls. Genlty roll the dough balls into powdered sugar and place dough balls on parchment lined baking sheets. Carefully press down on each ball with a glass to flatten tops slightly.
Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until top is crinkley and edges are set. Cook on sheet for 10 minutes and transfer to baking rack to finish cooling.
November 3, 2008 at 9:09 am
Oh, I am so sorry they didn’t turn out for you, was your dough too warm possibly?
Hope you find a recipe that works for you!
November 3, 2008 at 12:06 pm
It’s possible the dough (or the butter) got too warm – it seemed awfully wet. Stiffened up more in the freezer, and then they held their shape, but they never did look big and fluffy like yours
Were you maybe using more than the tablespoon called for?
November 3, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Hi Tracey! My friend Josh from high school (who sits next to your husband at work?) recommended I come take a look at your blog. It’s heavenly!! You are quite talented in both baking and photography. I would bake more myself, but I’m horrible at licking bowls and eating the dough before it goes in the oven
Kath
November 3, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I like the addition of powdered sugar. It sounds like if the dough soaked up the initial addition of powdered sugar that they were too wet/melty and that could be why they turned out so flat! They look good anyway!
November 3, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Sugarpunk,
I used my pampered chef medium scoop which may be more than 1 TBS, not sure.
I would chill the dough balls for 20-30 minutes, roll in the sugar and then bake. Sorry the recipe did not turn out like you expected. I have made them 3 times now with no problems, (knock on wood). However, I can NEVER get the Tollhouse recipe to work for me, they always turn out flat, even though it works for billions of other bakers. UGH
November 4, 2008 at 5:56 am
Sounds like your baking powder could be old. Try a new can with your next batch.
November 4, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Good thought, but it’s a fairly new can, and has been fine so far
November 4, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Hi there, we all learn from failures or mistakes. I like your pictures, the dough one is so cute. I just had this fried mozzarelline posted in my blog, in fact that was my second attempt as the first time, I left them too long in the oil and too many pieces frying in one batch.