Making in the Kitchen: Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

We have the most fantastic neighbors who have become dear friends. And when you live in the country, your neighbors are few and far between. So we can’t believe how lucky we’ve gotten to have Kolby and Rhonda living next door to us. It seems that every time they come over, I am baking something. And now the first thing to come out of Kolby’s mouth is always, “What kind of cookies are you making?”  So Kolby, this one’s for you…literally…I’ll be dropping them off at your house as soon as they cool.

I cut this recipe out of a Taste of Home magazine years ago. The peanut butter cookies always come out delightfully soft and chewy, while the creamy peanut butter filling lends just the right amount of sweetness. They take a little bit of time to assemble, but it is well worth it in the end!

You will need the following ingredients for these peanut butter sandwich cookies:

• 1 cup butter-flavored shortening (I only had un-flavored and it worked fine.)
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter (Save some money and use store-brand. You can’t tell the difference when baking with it.)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar (always packed)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Filling:

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 5-6 T. milk

So first cream the shortening, peanut butter and sugars in a big bowl (you’ll add more to it later) using a hand mixer.  Add vanilla and mix.  Then one at a time, add your eggs, mixing in between each addition.

In a separate bowl, mix your flour, baking soda and salt. Then add this to your creamed mixture.  Stir with a spoon until you’ve formed a very stiff dough.

Now shape the dough into 1″ balls.  Good luck trying to get it exact. Mine always turn out a little bit bigger than 1″. What is most important here is that you are consistent in your sizes so that they sandwich each other nicely.  But fyi, this size does makes them about 3″ in diameter after you cook them. So if you were looking for something the size of an Oreo, you’ll need to shoot for more like 1/2″ balls.

Place them 2″ apart on ungreased cookie sheets. (I would suggest using all the sheets you have and doing this all at once before any go in the oven–not re-using the same hot pan out of the oven each time.) Smash them down in a criss-cross pattern with a fork to about 3/8″ thickness.  Again, don’t worry too much about the dimensions. Just do what feels right.

 Bake these adorable little guys at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. (When using my “air bake” pans they needed 8 minutes. But with my older dark pans they only needed 6-7 minutes.) When you pull them out, you’ll look at them and think they are not done. They ARE done. Take the tray out and just let them sit for a couple of minutes. The puffiness will go down, and then you can transfer them to a drying rack.  If you like chewy cookies like I do, use this technique when baking…take them out of the oven just a tiny bit before you think they’re all the way done. Letting them sit on the pan just a few minutes out of the oven will allow them to cook a tiny bit more on the bottom enough to remove them, while still keeping them soft and chewy.  If you like your cookies crispy, then you may want to see a therapist about that because you clearly have a problem. ;)

The cookies need to cool completely before icing them. So while you wait, mix the icing up with your hand mixer again with the ingredients listed above.

Spread the filling on the under side of one cookie, and top with the other. Easy peasy!  Try these cookies out and let me know what you think.  If you have any tips on a different way to make these, please share them with us!!