Ah-MAY-zing Peanut Butter Cookies using Homemade Peanut Butter

So I have kevinandamanda.com in my google reader and towards the end of April, Amanda posted a recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies that piqued my interest. The key to her recipe is that she used homemade peanut butter. My first thought was "Homemade peanut butter? but why when Jif is so good?" But then she had to go and reference Jif in that very post. Now nothing can replace Jif in my heart, but this homemade peanut butter business made me curious. So I made her recipe...homemade peanut butter and all...and yowzers they were fabulous! I gave some to friends and family and have gotten requests for them again already.

You can see in my picture above, I had already started processing my peanuts when I took the pic of all my ingredients. But if you need more pics, Amanda has more of her process on her blog. I have a small food processor so I did about half the jar of peanuts at a time.

Below is the exact list of ingredients and directions straight from Amanda. My notes are in red.

1 (16 oz) can honey roasted peanuts

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 whole tablespoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup sugar + a dash of cinnamon for rolling

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Add the peanuts to the workbowl of a food processor and process for 4 minutes until smooth. Add salt to taste if desired. (I did not add salt.)

2. Beat butter, sugars, and 1 cup of homemade peanut butter on medium-high speed for 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt then add to wet ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined. (I used my KitchenAid to do all the mixing work for me.)

3. Using a medium cookie scoop (I use the OXO medium scoop), scoop dough into balls, roll in cinnamon sugar and use a fork to press flat (I just patted them once with a meat tenderizer like she did....very cute and clever).  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes until edges just start to turn golden. (I baked on Silpat baking mats with my Bakers Half Sheets and they turned out a nice chewy cookie. My cookies needed 11 minutes before the edges started browning.) These made 3 Dozen + 9 Cookies for me using the medium scoop.

I will leave you with a few last shots of these glorious bits of baked goodness!

Make them! You won't regret it. :)

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