Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies (Regina)

Grandpa (Albert) Carbone's favorite cookies were Peanut Butter.  I remember my cousin, Amy, making giant peanut butter cookies (a whole cookie sheet worth) for special occasions and he always seemed tickled (who wouldn't?).  Grandma received this recipe from her friend, Regina.  There are lots of Regina's recipes amongst Grandma's collection and most of them include the notation "V.G." or "Very Good" - this one included.

Peanut Butter Cookies happen to be one of my favorites too - especially if they're chewy and they're one of the few cookies of this type (drop) that I enjoy without adding nuts (although I do often use chunky PB).

If there is a PB Cookie recipe unique to our family, I'd love someone to share it - or maybe Amy would share the one she always made for Grandpa?

Old Fashioned P. Butter Cookies     (Regina)
2 1/2 C Flour                    1 C Sugar
1 tsp. Baking Powder       1 C Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Baking Soda            2 Eggs
1/4 C Margerine                2 tsp. Vanilla
1 C Peanut Butter

Mix at medium speed margerine & P. Butter until smooth.  Add sugars, eggs & vanilla.  Add dry ingredients.  Chill dough.  Shape in 1" balls.  Bake at 350 degrees in ungreased pan.  (Very Good):

I hope you enjoy these.  Until next time - happy baking!

Update January 4, 2012:  I can't believe it's been almost a full year since I posted this recipe - one of the first on this blog!  Last week, I finally baked a batch of these cookies.  I have started selling my baked goods at the resort where I work and wanted a traditional peanut butter cookie to include in the offerings. 

I thought the amount of fat was pretty skimpy - usually you have equal parts fat and peanut butter and sure enough, I had a really tough time getting the dough to hold together - it was pretty dry. I ended up making a whole new batch from my old tried and true recipe and putting the cookies from this recipe in our own cookie jar to eat at home.  BUT, and this is an big BUT, they were so amazingly delicious!  Arynn & I both really love peanut butter cookies and these did not dissappoint, in fact, they were simply addictive!  They were nice and crisp on the outside but chewy and dense on the inside and the peanut butter flavor really came through.  I will definitely make these again and I'll switch to this recipe for my cookies to sell from here on out.  It's far more important to have a delicious cookie that delivers the flavor and texture you expect than it is to have an attractive cookie.  Chalk this one up to a lesson learned!  Hope you make these soon and enjoy them as much as we did - I may have to make another batch tomorrow...