As with all great recipes, the one I have for peanut butter cookies is one that has been handed down through the generations. Mrs. Dot’s Peanut Butter Cookie recipe has been in my family for many years. The 3×5 index recipe card is stained with butter, but the bright blue ballpoint ink still shows clearly through. I’ve made it so many times I can practically do it by heart, but I like pulling out the card and reading the words “Mrs. Dot’s.” I never met her, but her name conjures up an image of a sweet old lady with a frilly apron and diamond studded cat-eye glasses. Whatever she looked like, she sure knew how to make the best peanut butter cookies I ever tasted. It is tradition to use a fork and criss-cross the tops of the cookies, but this time I also wanted to experiment with a Betty Crocker cookie stamp that stamps “HOME MADE.” These peanut butter cookies are crunchy and delicious and in my opinion, must be served with cold milk. Below is the recipe and step-by-step instructions, it makes about 24 cookies.

I have no idea who these women are, but when I think of what Mrs. Dot might of looked like, this is what I imagine. If anyone can identify this women, please come forward (kidding).

Get out your apron and begin by preheating oven to 350°

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sweet, unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 1 cup of peanut butter
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1 & 1/2 cups sifted flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, combine butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg and vanilla and mix until well incorporated.

Sift together dry ingredients; flour, baking soda and salt and add to the bowl mixing well.

I experimented with a couple different sizes of cookie dough that would give me the results I wanted. In the end, a ball of dough about the size of a walnut worked best.

This is the Betty Crocker cookie stamp I used.

Place the dough on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Press the cookie stamp in the center until the dough flattens. Bake for 12-15 minutes until brown.

I’m not mentioning any names, but I have a three year-old cookie thief.

Here is the other batch with the traditional cross-cross mark on top. Simply dip a fork into a bowl of sugar and press into the cookie in one direction and then the other.