My mom tells me that they couldn't get me to eat anything when I was little unless it had peanut butter on it. That doesn't surprise me. I've always loved peanut butter. I even named my first puppy after it. When I was on a "ketogenic diet" as a young overweight kid, I was so happy because peanut butter was an "allowed" food on account of its high protein content. I ate it as a spread on celery sticks, carrots, lettuce, and whole wheat bread. Later, as a young adult out on my own, I ate peanut butter on my hot dogs, pizza, and in meat sauces.
We were lucky because my mom insisted on serving only pure peanut butter — Adams Natural Peanut Butter (since 1922), which had no added shortening or sugar. Later, I remember when she got us to try grinding our own peanuts in the blender. Wow, that was good. It was warm from the grinding and aromatic and tasted simply delicious! These days, you can grind your own peanuts in some grocery stores.
I still have a recipe for peanut butter cookies from our family Pillsbury Cookbook... the 3x5 recipe card where I copied it is very old and worn.
Peanut Butter Cookies
2/3 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
OVEN: 350º F, 8 minutes to 10 minutes
That's all I wrote down on the card. The rest I just remember by heart: Mix the "wet" ingredients first, mix the "dry" ingredients second, then mix them together into a stiff dough. Use a spoon to scoop out small amounts, roll them into balls in your hands, and place them on a cookie sheet. (I don't think the cookie sheet needs to be greased first, but it probably wouldn't hurt to do so.) Using the back of a fork dipped into a small bowl of water, press each ball of dough flat and make a criss-cross pattern with the tines of the fork.
That's about it! And now, many years later, I've modified my recipe using whole wheat flour instead of the white flour, whole Sucanat sugar instead of the brown sugar, butter instead of the shortening, and fertile eggs because they provide more life energy. I also like to double the recipe and change the proportions so there's a lower ratio of butter and sugar to the other ingredients.
This year I think I'll modify the recipe even more, this time eliminating sugar completely and finding a suitable sugar substitute... Or maybe I'll come up with a completely different kind of peanut butter cookie? This could require a complete breakdown and analysis of all the ingredients as well as the overall design of the cookie. Interesting! I'll include a yin/yang analysis based on what I've learned so far in my macrobiotic studies...
P.S. Here's a link to the "Peter Pan peanut butter" web site, answering the FAQ "Is there a difference between regular peanut butter and natural peanut butter?" PETER PAN PEANUT BUTTER
