Baking Favorites – Williams Sonoma
I know, it’s pretty brave to say these are the best peanut butter cookies. After I gave one to my husband, he said “in all the years I have known you and of all the peanut butter cookies you have made, these are the absolute best!”. And I have to say, I agree. But we will get to why shortly.
The recipe
This is another recipe from Baking Favorites by Williams Sonoma. I provided a review of this book not that long ago. In the hierarcy of cookies, I admit that peanut butter cookies are not the top of my list. I like them, but I’ll take a chewy chocolate chip cookie first if presented both.
The ingredients were common and provided in both volume and weight. The steps were easy to follow although I ignored my usual rule and didn’t read through the entire recipe first. So of course, I preheated my oven but then had to turn it off when step 2 asked for the dough to be chilled for 2 hours before baking. This is why I read through a recipe first.
I weigh out my flour before sifting. I really don’t know if that is the proper way to do this or if it even matters. There will be another experiment coming up….does the weight of flour change after it’s sifted? I’ll provide that answer in another post.
This recipe calls for the butter to be melted and then cooled before adding to the wet ingredients. I love this little lodge sauce pot for melting butter. I don’t like using the microwave since the butter usually ends up boiling away or I have to keep adding time because I’m trying to avoid boiling and then it ends up boiling anyway. With the pot on the stove, I can stir it while it melts and turn the heat off when it’s just right.
Add the wet ingredients to your stand mixer and you get this creamy batter.
Martha Stewart taught me how to add flour to my Kitchen Aid stand mixer in a somewhat easy manner…lower in scoops with your spatula. I’ve used larger mixing spoons in the past and found they work as well. The trick is to find something that holds enough flour so it doesn’t take forever to add the flour but not so much that your kitchen ends up in a snowstorm of flour flying everywhere.
This is the dough you get after mixing until combined. I scraped down the sides and made a little ball of peanut butter cookie dough to chill in the fridge.
I used my cookie scoop to get equal amounts of dough which I then rolled into little balls. The dough was very easy to work with. It stayed together when rolled and wasn’t a sticky mess. The balls flattened easily with a fork for that pretty cross hatch pattern. The recipe called it “make a pattern of parallel indentations”; sounds so grown up.
And the Finished Result
Why We Love These Peanut Butter Cookies
The texture of these peanut butter cookies is amazing. They are crispy on the outside but soft on the inside and they stayed fresh for the couple of days they were still around. I found the recipe easy to make and the steps as written gave me the result I wanted. This recipe is a keeper!
You can find the recipe on the Williams-Sonoma US website here. The measurements for the ingredients is the same and for the most part, the instructions are the same as well.
Have you made these peanut butter cookies before? Do you like chewy on the inside, crisp on the outside cookies? Let me know down below. If you make these cookies, I would love if you would show us on Instagram @heidiswhatsburning