Jim's Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies

August 10, 2016

These are these best peanut butter cookies ever. The use of cornstarch, which is gluten free, makes them crumbly and "short" by breaking up some of the gluten in the flour, hence making them a bit delicate. We also like to occasionally add malt powder to this recipe as well. Jim Fobel was a dear friend of mine through my years at Cooking Light magazine and after. He was the test kitchen director at Food and Wine for years, a cookbook author, food writer, artist and one of the best cooks I've ever known. This recipe is from his classic cookbook, Jim Fobel's Old-Fashioned Baking Book (Ballantine Books, 1987). Find it online if you can. It will be the only baking book you'll ever need. –Jill Melton, Editor

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks)butter

1 cupsugar

2/3 cupbrown sugar

2eggs

1/2 teaspoonsalt

2 teaspoonsvanilla extract (or vanilla paste by Nielsen-Massey)

3 cupsflour

1/4 cupcornstarch

2 teaspoonsbaking soda

1 1/4 cupspeanut butter

coarse salt

sugar

Preparation

1. In a heavy mixer, beat butter with sugars until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, vanilla and salt. Beat well. Add flour, cornstarch and baking soda, mix just until blended. Add peanut butter, mix well. Chill dough at least 1 hour or overnight. Preheat oven to 350F. With a small scoop, scoop dough onto baking sheets. Sprinkle tops with sugar and salt. Bake 12-15 minutes (more for crunchier cookies, less for soft). Yield: 36 cookies.