The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

Happy Monday!

Like the forgetful blogger I am, I failed to mention that I signed up for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap back in November. The swap was put on by Lindsay at Love and Olive Oil and Julie at The Little Kitchen. They had over 600 bloggers enter! Each of us was paired with three other bloggers to send and swap a dozen cookies.

It is my firm belief that every woman should have one perfected, fool-proof cookie recipe up her sleeve to help tip the scales of life in her favor when necessary. My rule is it’s not really bribery if it’s baked goods, and even if it were, the evidence gets eaten and can’t finger you in the end. In college, I bartered my peanut butter cookies for homework and project help from the hub’s fraternity brothers. I use them to convince my grumpy coworkers to cover my equipment while the hubs and I travel and to (peanut) butter up my husband on a regular basis.

So, without further ado, here’s my ace-in-the-hole, go-to, never-fail, soft-and-chewy, Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap recipe:

Mom’s Peanut Butter Cookies

Yield: Approximately four dozen cookies

Ingredients:

1 c. shortening
1 1/2 c. peanut butter  (oddly enough, after much experimenting, I’ve found generic PB makes a chewier cookie)
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. flour

Prep:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (~180 degrees Celcius)
2. Cream shortening, pb, sugars, and eggs until light and fluffy.
3. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda together.
4. Slowly add flour mixture (to avoid covering both your and your kitchen in white powder). Don’t over mix (or your cookies will be tough). The dough will be fairly stiff (Funny story about my mixer: in Sunday school a couple of weeks ago our teacher started off with an ice breaker, asking each of us what we wouldn’t want to have to live without in our house. My response? My mixer.)
5. Scoop the dough onto a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet. I use a small cookie disher for this operation. It’s much faster than two spoons.
6. Squish the cookies criss-cross style with a fork. Why squish? This dough is very stiff and won’t spread like traditional cookie dough. If you don’t squish it down slightly, the cookies will burn on the outside and be raw in the middle. They only need a gentle squish.
7. Bake these bad boys. I would recommend 6-7 minutes in an electric oven and 12-13 in a gas range (from personal experience). The most important thing with these cookies is to take them out early! They won’t look done, but they are. Don’t trust my timing–make your own. Check them and check them often. Over cooked cookies means they’ll be crunchy instead of chewy. If that’s your thing, bake on. If not, take them out when you think they probably need another minute or two.
8. When done, allow the cookies to cool on the pan for a minute or two, the gently transfer to a wire rack for cooling. Enjoy warm… that’s how they’re best!

So far, I’ve received cookies from one other blogger, Renee at Attack of the Hungry Monster. She sent some lovely Crispy Coconut Almond Cookies that were to die for. So much so, in fact, that Kevin and I ate every one before I realized I probably should have taken a picture first. Oops. The forgetful blogger strikes again.

Did you participate in the Cookie Swap? If so what did you make? If not, what would you have made? Hope you all had a awesome weekend! Only two weeks until Christmas!