Peanut Butter Cookies

I have to make a confession. I'm not a huge fan of peanut butter cookies.

Which is odd, because I adore peanut butter. I could eat a pb&j for lunch every day of my life and die happy. Pb and apples, pb and celery, pb on toast, with or without jam, nutella, bananas, bacon. I've even eaten a Bob Burger in Michigan that consisted of: hamburger, egg, peanut butter, mayo, lettuce, tomato, bacon. It was delicious. And anybody who knows my family even remotely knows about our love affair with Peanut Butter Bon Bons at Christmas time.

So what is it about peanut butter cookies?

I think it's the flour, to tell you the truth, and the extra sugar. There is ONE recipe I like, which is so simple I can tell you here: 1 c. pb, 1 c. sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp. baking soda. That's it. And yes, it really does make a cookie.

So with this recipe, I kind of made a little pre-emptive strike towards palatability by adding a cup of bittersweet chocolate chips.

Now, I love pb and dark chocolate so much that I did a fair amount of nibbling of cookie dough while I rolled and pressed these cookies onto the baking sheets.

I've never swallowed lead sinkers, but that's what it sure felt like.

I was so heavy and uncomfortable in the stomach that I didn't even want to try a baked cookie, and I came home from work with half of my lunch still intact. I think the cookies were good, because E., Dr. and Mrs. S.'s granddaughter, came into the kitchen when she heard the timer so she could bring some warm cookies out into the sun room where they were having tea. She said they were great, and she's a trustworthy source since she's an extremely finicky eater.

I don't know what to tell you about these cookies. If you like pb cookies, go for it. If you're on the fence about them but have to bake them for some reason, try my variation above (which is also printed in the cookbook, I was delighted to see). But whatever you do, DON'T EAT THE DOUGH!