Christmas Notebook

I found this recipe while looking for cookie recipes to try out for our annual Christmas open house. I like something fancier for the party, but DD said we should make them for the open house. If I could incorporate chocolate somehow…. We will certainly make these again. They are delicious. Great honey / peanut butter flavor and perfectly chewy. So good!

I found the recipe here and she found it here (where they are rolled in powdered sugar instead of granulated) and that person found it here (where the picture doesn’t look like the same cookie at all).

Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup honey
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Granulated sugar for coating cookies before baking. (If you are using this recipe for Peanut Butter Cup Cookies, you won’t need this sugar.)

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt, and set aside. In a standing mixer, beat the shortening, peanut butter and honey. Then add the eggs and mix well. Add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and mix well.

Form dough into 1″ balls and roll in sugar. I used a small ice cream scoop to make all the balls the same size, then rolled them in my hands to make them smooth and uniform.

Place on ungreased baking sheets and bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes [8 minutes for mine].

Remove from oven and let cool slightly on cookie sheets. I didn’t let them cool on the cookie sheet for more than 30 seconds or so. I didn’t want them to cook any more than they had. Remove to cooling rack to cool completely. Store tightly covered.

These are right out of the oven. As they cool, they collapse a little.

I tried baking them in the round and also flattened with a glass. I liked the rounds better. Bottom row in the picture below. They were a bit chewier and thicker, too. The top row are the flattened ones.

The recipe made seven dozen cookies. I plan to put a dozen in the freezer to see how well they freeze.

~~Rhonda

PS…the next day and they are just as great today as they were yesterday. They hold their shape perfectly.