Peanut Butter Criss-Cross Cookies

I'm not particularly fond of peanut butter. In fact, I had never eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before my Junior year of college. Before you think about condemning my parents for depriving me, I'll admit it was my own choice. Peanut butter was just too thick and well, peanuty. As I've grown up though, I'm learning to like it's strong taste and texture more. But no, you won't see me eating straight from the jar anytime soon!

The one exception to this aversion to peanut butter I had growing up was a good peanut butter cookie. I think its toned down flavor made it acceptable to a younger me. There is something very comforting about a peanut butter cookie for me. Although it was never a specialty of any of my family cooks and I have no real reason to associate it with comfort, it just seems like a homey cookie to me. You can call me weird if you want, but I have a sneaking suspicion I'm not the only one with this though process.

Another thing I find interesting is the, I believe, mandatory criss-cross pattern on the top of the cookie. Mr. Cowboy and I had a discussion on this topic during the baking process, so I decided to do a little googling to find out the reason. I have no clue if this is true or not, but it is what I seemed to find most often and most reasonable.

In the 1930s cooks were told to put a criss-CROSS pattern on all of their peanut butter cookies so that they would be easily identifiable. Why? Peanut allergies were significant then as well and the sign of the cross was to protect people with allergies from eating them. Such a cool concept, I'm going to attribute this concept to a God Fearing Southern Grandma! The other reason for the criss-cross is supposedly to condense the cookie for a crispier, more uniform bake that will keep the cookie together. Not nearly as fun as the first reason!

Enough of the history lesson and on to the cooking lesson! This is a Cowboy Family recipe and is dead on for the classic peanut butter cookie.

Notes:

• I use a very small ice cream scoop for this recipe (about 1 oz.), since I prefer these to be smaller cookies. This is absolutely preference an you can make them bigger if you'd like.
• This makes a lot of cookies, so feel free to freeze some of the dough balls if you like. Click HERE for directions on how to freeze cookie dough.

Peanut Butter Criss-Cross Cookies
1 c. butter, room temperature
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar, packed
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1 c. creamy peanut butter
3 c. flour
2 t. baking soda

Preheat to 375.

With a hand or stand mixer on high, cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl. On low, stir in the vanilla and then each of the eggs individually. Add the peanut butter and mix until smooth and well incorporated. Slowly add the flour and soda in batches to the mixture.

Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop all of the dough into tiny cookie dough balls onto ungreased cookie sheets. The cookies will not spread much but leave a little room between each one. Take a fork and press the tines into the cookie dough ball twice at 90 degree angles to create a criss-cross pattern.

Bake for 9-10 minutes or until slightly golden in some spots.