Okay, maybe not world-famous, but they are famous here in the states from coast to coast (since I have made them for people who live on both the east and west coasts, that is). Because I'm feeling recipe-friendly today, here it is: 1/4 cup shortening 1/4 cup butter or margarine (I usually combine these and use 1 stick butter) 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter 1/2 cup white sugar 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed 1 egg 1 1/4 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 bag mini Snickers (must be mini -- not fun size) It's a pretty standard peanut butter cookie recipe, which can be left alone at this point (well, by omitting the Snickers). My mom makes the best chocolate chip cookies using this recipe as a base, substituting extra chunky peanut butter for the smooth that the recipe calls for. Kind of. I'm sure she's modified it a bit because modifying recipes is what we do. Anyway, instructions: 1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 2. Cream together shortening, margarine/butter, peanut butter, white sugar and brown sugar. 3. Add egg, stir. 4. Stir in flour, baking powder and baking soda, mix thoroughly. 5. Pinch off a small amount of dough and flatten. Place mini Snickers in the middle and wrap edges of dough around candy until covered. Roll into a ball. (I don't have any specific measurement for this; I just go with what looks right.) 6. Repeat until you run out of Snickers or dough -- whatever comes first. 7. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes, or until top of cookies are very very lightly browned. Be careful not to overbake -- not only will this yield cookies that are rock-hard once they've cooled, it also makes it more likely that all the awesome Snickers goodness will run out all over the pan. Yields 24-36 cookies, depending on size. Tip: Unwrap the Snickers BEFORE you mix the batter. If you try to do it as you're rolling the pieces of candy up in the dough, you'll find that your fingers are too coated with the butter and peanut butter to be able to navigate the wrappers. These are very good and pretty easy and people rave about them. It's always nice to make things that people rave about, yeah? Exactly.

This is, by far, the absolute BEST sugar cookie recipe I have ever used. It's supposedly the same recipe Paradise Bakery uses for their sugar cookies, and they really do taste exactly the same. Ingredients 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup powdered sugar 2 cups shortening 3/4 teaspoon vanilla 1 large egg, beaten 4 cups cake flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350° 2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugars and shortening using an electric mixer. 3. Mix on slow speed 30 seconds, then scrape down the bowl with a spatula. Increase speed to medium and mix for 3 minutes. 4. Slowly add vanilla and beaten egg while mixing. 5 .In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 6. Gradually add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl, mixing on slow speed until just blended. Do not overmix. 7. Scoop with a cookie scoop and place directly on UNGREASED cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with palm of hand. 8. Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes. Cookies are done when small cracks appear and are pale golden. Ideally, the edges do not brown. A couple things to note: - I used four cups of cake flour instead of the 4 1/3 C. called for in the original recipe. I didn't notice I used less than I should have until I looked at the recipe for the sake of writing this post, but had I not, I never would have known. I think the dough would have been too dry with the extra flour. - Do not grease your cookie sheet and wipe clean before each batch. The grease/oil/cooking spray will burn the bottom of your cookies. - Let your cookies sit on the sheet for about five minutes before transferring to the cooling racks. Enjoy!