Salted Peanut Butter Cookies

From inthekitchenwithkath.com

(Adapted from Deb Perelman’s recipe on smittenkitchen.com which she adapted from the Ovenly cookbook.)

I cut Deb’s recipe in half. You can easily double this one to make more cookies. If you double it, you’ll need 1¾ cups of sugar and 1¾ cups of peanut butter. A commenter on Deb’s blog mentioned, and Deb confirmed, that a 16.3 ounce jar of Skippy contains 1¾ cups of peanut butter so no measuring required.

A couple of comments on Deb’s blog mentioned that their cookies turned out great without the second time in the freezer on the baking sheets. I’ll be trying that next time.

Makes about 12 cookies

¾ cup + 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar (I substituted maple sugar.)

1 large egg, at room temperature

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup + 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

Coarse-grained or flaked sea salt, to finish

1. Preheat the oven to 350° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Whisk the sugar and the egg together until smooth.

3. Whisk in the vanilla.

4. Whisk in the peanut butter until it is thoroughly blended.

5. Put the bowl of dough in the freezer for 15 minutes, stirring it once after about 8 minutes.

6. Scoop or spoon the dough into balls on the prepared baking sheet. (Deb used a 1 2/3 tablespoon – 40mm – scoop. I used a 2 tablespoon – 44mm – scoop.)

7. Put the baking sheet in the freezer for 15 minutes.

8. Sprinkle the cookies with the salt and bake for 15 – 18 minutes. (Mine took 17 minutes; start checking at 15.) When done, the cookies should be getting golden around the edges.

9. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for several minutes and then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

10. When totally cool, store in an air-tight container.