Peanut Butter Cookies and Coffee. When I married I received a cookbook.....Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook. It was originally published in 1953. Some of you may remember it by the red and white check cover. It had a ring binding. I still have the book, in storage, but with lots of splatters and pages that no longer are contained by the rings. Still there are some of the recipes that are favorites.
I started thinking about this old cookbook when I decided to try out the new mixer by making peanut butter cookies. Since I have the mixer I'm going to try to bake more this year and make adjustments to accommodate our 6700 feet above sea level altitude. Also our sugars and flours are just a little different than the ones we use in the USA so sometimes that makes a difference especially with baking.
I found a recipe on the net and I think it is basically the same except I don't remember the old recipe having both baking powder and baking soda in it. I like crisp cookies so I cooked them longer than the original recipe.
Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies
Makes about 5-1/2 dozen cookies
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2-1/2 cups flour (next time I will add another 2 tablespoons of flour since fork marks did not hold up well in dough)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup smooth peanut butter or crunchy peanut butter
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (our Mexican Imperial Brown Sugar does not "pack" the same as the USA version)
1 cup fine granulated sugar (but not powdered sugar)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped dry roasted peanuts (optional if not using crunchy peanut butter)
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
Beat peanut butter, butter and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla; mix well.
Gradually add flour mixture, beating until well blended after each addition.
Use heaping teaspoon of dough to make a quick ball and put on greased baking sheet 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball, in criss-cross pattern with tines of folk.
Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool 5 minutes
Remove from baking sheets to wire racks and cool completely.
4 comments:
Yummm! Ned is a lucky fellow.
I glanced up to the bookshelf, as I read your blog, to look fondly at my much used (1964) BH&G cookbook! Growing up, we used my mother's edition -- I guess it wasn't the "new" version, since it was published in about 1943, and including a lot of ration-menu advice.
Like you, I mostly use it now for baking recipes -- definitely tried and true.
I'm SOOOO jealous that you have your BH&G Cookbook. I too got one when my now husband and I took up housekeeping together; isn't that the coolest most inocuous way of saying we were shacking up!
Anyway, I LOVE that book, I referred to it all the time. When we decided to move to Mexico (we live in Merida) and sell off nearly everything we owned that book was one of the things that went. I am so sorry I chose to let it go.
I may just check out ebay and next time a friend comes to visit I'll get a replacement, not the same as mine, but comforting just the same.
It is surprising how many people remember this cookbook. I have also written about a tiny cookbook I have from Don's Restaurants printed in about 1958. Every once in a while I get an email asking me if such and such recipe is in it and could I post it for them because their copy has been lost.
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