I wonder how these turned out for Susie...I watch two little boys after school one day a week and I always have something fresh from the oven when they get here, today I thought peanut butter cookies sounded good. This past weekend we went to the Milwaukee Public Market where they have a bakery and I had the best p.b. cookie. It was big, very peanut buttery in taste, kind of crisp when you bit it but buttery when you chewed it. I wish I had asked what kind of peanut butter they used...I loved the flavor of natural peanut butter but have not been able to successfully make a p.b. cookie from it.

This may very well be an American recipe but it is quite well-known in Sweden where we call it Mock Snickers. It's especially popular with children who can make the cookies themselves if a grown up heats the sugar and syrup mixture for them. I prefer Special K cereals to corn flakes myself and also make sure the peanut butter is the crunchy kind. We also cover the cool cookies with melted medium dark chocolate.

I'll chime in for gluten-free recipes too...so we'll be on the "off" topic (lol). There is a 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe, 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe, Flourless Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe, and all it's variations, including adding chocolate chips to the recipe. 1 c. peanut butter 1 c. sugar 1 egg (1 t. vanilla) optional (1 t. baking soda) optional Blend ingredients and drop by teaspoonfuls on a baking sheet. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 8-minutes. Grainlady note: I've altered this recipe and it makes a more traditional peanut butter cookie than the above recipe produces: 1 c. peanut butter 1/3 c. palm sugar (I use Navitas Naturals Organic Palm Sugar and order it through iHerb.com) 1 egg 1 T. agave nectar (or palm sugar syrup - aka coconut nectar*) 4 T. almond flour 2 T. hi-maize flour (Honeyville Grain or King Arthur) 1 t. soda *Homemade coconut nectar/palm sugar syrup - 3/4 c. palm sugar + 1/4 c. water. Heat a few minutes until dissolved. Much richer flavor than agave nectar. Press the dough balls down with a fork and bake in a 350-degree oven. By using palm sugar and/or agave nectar, they are also low-glycemic and appropriate for most diabetics. I use gluten\-free almond flour a lot and purchase it by the 5\-pound bag from Honeyville Grain (www.honeyvillegrain.com) and coconut flour (on line from \- Wilderness Family, Bob's Red Mill, Tropical Traditions, Coconut Secret, etc.) for baking. For great gluten\-free recipes, I'd suggest "The Gluten\-Free Almond Flour Cookbook" by Elana Amsterdam (www.elanaspantry.com \- where you will find more recipes). We're enjoying the Pecan Shortbread Cookie recipe out of the book this weekend :\-). "Cooking with Coconut Flour" A Delicious Low\-Carb, Gluten\-Free Alternative to Wheat \- by Bruce Fife, N.D. You can find a lot of recipes using coconut flour on\-line. I'd also suggest milling your own grains for other gluten\-free flours. Even a good coffee/spice mill will mill rice flour, and other small grains. When milling rice for baking, use short\- or medium\-grain rice. They have the best baking quality. Long\-grain rice flour is fine as a thickener or dredging meat, but short\- and medium\-grain rice work for thickening and dredging, but are the better choice for baking. Having your own mill would save a lot of money on gluten\-free flours. Plus, fresh\-is\-best when it comes to flour. I develop recipes (including gluten\-free) for a sorghum mill. My mother was gluten\-intolerant, and that got me started developing recipes for her 35\-years ago, when there was little in the way of information or recipes. \-Grainlady

If you want something a little different, you might like this recipe. I use to make this peanut butter and chocolate cookie tart all the time to take to the school bake sales when my son was young. The teachers would buy up the trays before they ever made it too the bake sale table. I'm not a peanut butter fan, so I've adapted the recipe over the years to make a shortbread cup for the chocolate filling. This is what the cookie looks like as the shortbread version. The peanut butter version looks the same except the cookie dough is a more golden brown. Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table Peanut butter and chocolate cookie Tarts ======================================== Dough 3/4 cup butter 3/4 cup peanut butter smooth 3/4 cup brown sugar 3/4 cup white sugar 1 egg 1 egg yolk 2 tsp vanilla 2 1/4 cups flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda Chocolate filling 4 oz semisweet chocolate 1 Tablespoon Milk 2 Tablespoons cocoa 1/3 cup butter 2 cups sifted Icing Sugar . Cream butter with peanut butter until very smooth. Beat in sugars. Beat in egg and yolk. Add vanilla. Sift flour with baking soda and mix well. Stir into butter mixture. Press balls of dough into well buttered mini muffin tins. Each ball of dough should be about 3/4's the size of the muffin tin - when you intent the centre it should form the shape of a pudgy little tart shell. Bake in preheated 350ðF oven for 15 minutes or until outside is baked but inside is still chewy. Do not over bake. Cool five minutes on rack and then remove from tins. Cool completely. Filling Combine chocolate, cocoa, milk and butter in small saucepan. Melt over low heat. Mix until smooth. Cool. Beat in icing sugar to give consistency of icing. Pipe about 1 tablespoon of filling into each tart. Note: YOu can spoon the filling in to the centre, but it looks nicer when piped.