Fee Fi Fo Fum

I smell peanut butter cookies

on your thumbs.

From the moment when I opened the jar of peanut butter last night

to make these, I had Chloe's undivided attention.

This morning when hubby awoke,

he helped himself to a pre-breakfast snack.

Chloe feigned hunger, so he dumped her breakfast into her bowl.

Of course that was merely a distraction.

While he was serving her breakfast with one hand,

she was busy trying to get the peanut butter cookie

out of his other hand.

Thankfully, she is a gentle food thief;

hubby still has all his fingers.

Grandma K's Peanut Butter Cookies

(recipe revised slightly for health reasons)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

  (the stuff that has peanuts and salt as the only ingredients)

1-2 teaspoons bacon grease

1/2 cup smart balance light, minus 1-2 teaspoons

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

1-2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1-3 hand-fulls of dry roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 deg. F.

In 1 cup pyrex measuring cup, microwave peanut butter on high for 45 seconds to a minute.  Add the bacon grease and smart balance light to fill up to 1 cup measure, and stir to melt.  Put in mixing bowl, add sugar and blend well.  Add egg and vanilla and mix more.  Pre-mix the dry ingredients together, then gradually stir into the wet ingredients.  Add the peanuts and stir well.  Spoon onto cookie sheets and flatten with a fork.  Bake at 375 deg. F. for 6-8 minutes.  Be careful, these burn very quickly.  They can become completely black on the bottom before any browning even appears on the top.  I usually bake cookies at 350 deg. F, but this recipe just seems to work better with a hotter oven.

The original recipe used 1/2 cup of chunky peanut butter and 1/2 cup of bacon grease.  The substitution of natural peanut butter and chopped nuts worked fine.  But when I tried substituting just smart balance light for the bacon grease, the cookies lacked flavor and stuck to the flattening fork unless it was dipped in sugar first.  The small amount of bacon grease adds flavor, crunch, and solves the sticky-ness issue.

Enjoy.