Peanut Butter Cookies with Maldon Sea Salt

A really good peanutty-flavored peanut butter cookie can be hard to find. You can buy a mix from the grocery store but it's usually overly sweet with not enough real peanut flavor, plus have you read all the weird ingredients on the back of the bag?? No thanks.  I like a peanut butter cookie that tastes like peanuts! And I don't want it to be hard or flat or overly crispy. Slightly crunchy with a thicker texture is good for me! This Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe by Alice Medrich is great and covers all the bases! The key to this recipe is letting the dough rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours. This gives the wet ingredients time to be well absorbed by the dry ingredients which, Ms. Medrich says, affects the taste of the finished cookie. The cold dough is definitely easier to dish out into perfectly round balls that hold their shape well in the oven. These cookies do not spread much while baking and keep a fairly thick/dense texture when cooled. And yes, they have a terrific authentic peanut flavor! This is how you make them:

Gather your room temperature ingredients together. Start by whisking together the flour and baking soda, set aside. In an electric mixer, cream together the butter, sugars and salt until smooth and creamy.

Add the egg, vanilla and peanut butter until well combined. Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Wrap the bowl of dough with plastic wrap and place into the fridge for at least 2 hours, up to 12 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line your cookie sheets and use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out approximately 1 Tablespoon of dough and place around 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Using a fork, flatten each ball of dough to approximately 3/8 inches thick, pressing the tines in two directions.

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes until the tops are colored and the bottoms are golden brown. Cool cookies completely before storing in an airtight container.

I changed up a few things from the original recipe: I used regular old Jiff Chunky Peanut Butter because that's what I had on hand. I am SURE that using freshly ground peanut butter would give an even better fresh peanut flavor so I will try that next time. I also used a medium size ice cream scoop instead of a small scoop cause I like bigger cookies! They took just a little longer to bake. After I flattened my dough with the fork, I topped each cookie off with a tiny sprinkle of Maldon Sea Salt before baking for an extra salty tang! My friend Annette loves peanut butter cookies and she thought these were terrific and my sister Katie loved the addition of the sea salt on top! Enjoy!