Time for something sweet!

I actually have yet another burger recipe to share, but let's take a break from burgers and talk about something sweet.

Like these yummy peanut butter cookies. These cookies came to my attention through a post over on the CLBB, but they originated from Deb over at Smitten Kitchen. If you are not already familiar with her blog, you MUST take a look. You'll want to lick your computer screen. And she even makes her own graham crackers and marshmallows. You're not likely to get any of that over here, so go take a look. You can also read about how these cookies are connected to the Magnolia Bakery in NYC.

Peanut Butter Cookies from Smitten Kitchen

I was initially intrigued - apart from my interest in anything combining chocolate and peanut butter - by her photographs of these cookies. They looked nice and thick, something you don't often (ever?) see with a peanut butter cookie. The texture looked perfect.

As you can see, my cookies do not look like hers, but they were still good. I did not bake them by the rounded teaspoonful (I'm obsessed with using a cookie scoop and I don't have one that small), so that may account for some of the differences in texture. However, it's really hard to figure out why the same recipe can turn out so differently for different bakers - maybe the water content of the butter was different, maybe it was the brand of peanut butter, maybe the butter was too soft/not soft enough, and on and on.

Mine didn't bake up as thick as Deb's, but they did have a very nice texture - as Val on the CLBB said, they are dense and tender, not quite chewy, but not cakelike either (she's much better at describing cookies than I am!). Most peanut butter cookies are a bit dry and crumbly for my tastes - not so with these cookies.

My only problem with this recipe? I'm not sure they had enough PB flavor in them. As much as I liked them, I kept waiting for more PB to shine through. I skipped the peanut butter chips, thought, so maybe that would have bumped them up a notch. I'm certainly more than willing to give them another go..........