Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Cookies

     I know I have said this before, but my husband loves peanut butter…and so do I.  When I went to Earth Fare about a month ago, they were having a $5 food revolution.  For those of you who do not know, a $5 food revolution is when Earth Fare has five items in their store that are a dollar each.  Two of those items were organic peanut butter and organic grape jelly.  I couldn’t resist myself, so I bought both.  I contemplated making Ina Garten’s Peanut Butter & Jelly bars, but decided that they contained too much butter, too much sugar, and too much flour.  I also wanted to make something that I could sample.  This made me think of the peanut butter cookies I made for the pie crust of J.T.’s Peanut Butter Birthday Pie.  Those cookies were good, but oh so sweet.  For my Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich cookies, I cut the amount of sugar in half.  I completely omitted the granulated white sugar, and instead used honey.  What a good decision this happened to be.  The cookies came out moist and creamy and the sweetness of the jelly makes the cookies sweet enough.  Taking a bite of these sandwich cookies takes me back to the elementary school lunch room, when my mom would pack me a PB&J.  These cookies happen to be the dessert version of my favorite childhood lunch. 

Ingredients

·         1 cup creamy peanut butter

·         ½ cup pure clover honey

·         1 teaspoon baking powder

·         1 egg

·         grape jelly

Directions

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

2.      With a handheld mixer, beat together the peanut butter and honey until smooth.  Add the baking powder and beat until just combined.  Lastly, beat in the egg until the batter is smooth and creamy.  Using a cookie scoop, drop dough on to prepared baking sheet (about 20 cookies).  Use a spoon to gently flatten each cookie dough ball.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes.   Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and cool for at least 10 minutes (this gives them time to harden). 

3.      Once the cookies are completely cool, spread about a teaspoon of grape jelly on one cookie and top with another cookie.  Repeat the process until you run out of cookies.  I somehow ended up with an odd number of cookies.  Of course, I had to eat that one lonesome cookie in order to have an even number of sandwich cookies J

Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies

Ingredients

Cookies

• 1 ¼ cups butter, softened
  
• 1 cup light brown sugar
  
• ½ cup granulated sugar
  
• 1 egg
  
• 2 teaspoons good vanilla extract
  
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
  
• ½ teaspoon salt
  
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  
• 3 cups oats, not quick cooking
  

Cream Filling

• ½ cup butter, softened
  
• 2 cups powdered sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon good vanilla extract
  
• 2 tablespoons milk
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
   
2. Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until just combined.
   
3. In a medium-sized bowl whisk together flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon. In another medium-sized bowl measure out the oats. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour and oats, alternating back and forth until all is combined.
   
4. Drop cookies on prepared cookie sheets using a mini-ice cream scoop or a tablespoon. The dough will yield 48 cookies. Bake in preheated oven for 11 to 12 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Allow to cookies to cool on sheets for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
   
5. To prepare the cream filling, beat together the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk. To create a piping bag, spoon into and Ziploc bag and clip one corner of the bag with scissors. Pipe filling onto cooled cookies using about a tablespoon of filling per cookie and top with another cookie. Yields 24 oatmeal cream pies.
   

 

Recipe courtesy of The Sweet Touch

More cookies - Gingerbread men, Angels and Christmas Trees

Gingerbread Cookie recipe

Sugar Cookie recipe

My Christmas ornament this year was appropriate.

Gingerbread Cookies

 Ingredients

• 1/2 c. butter, softened
• 1/3 c. packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 c. dark molasses
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger

Directions

1. Beat butter, brown sugar, molasses, egg white, and vanilla in a large bowl at high speed with electric mixer until smooth.  Combine flour, baking soda, powder, salt and spices in bowl.  Add to butter mixture; mix well.  Cover; refrigerate until firm, about 8 hours or overnight. 
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease cookie sheets.
3. Roll dough on floured surface to 1/8 in. thickenss. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters.  Place on prepared cookie sheets.
4. Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until edges begin to brown.  Remove to wire racks.  Cool completely.  Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.  Decorate with icing if desired. 

Thanks to my friend Sarah for the cookie making accessories!

 Classic Sugar Cookies

recipe courtesy of Southern Living

 Ingredients

• 1  cup  butter or margarine, softened
• 1  cup  granulated sugar
• 1  large egg
• 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• 3  cups  all-purpose flour
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• sprinkles and sparkling sugar for decorating
• Glaze
• 1  (16-oz.) package powdered sugar
• 6  tablespoons  warm water
• Liquid  food coloring (optional)
•  Stir together powdered sugar and warm water using a wire whisk. Divide mixture, and tint with food coloring, if desired; place in shallow bowls for ease in dipping cookies.

Directions

1.  Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add granulated sugar, beating well. Add egg and vanilla, beating well. Combine flour and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Divide dough in half. Cover; chill 1 hour.
2. Roll each portion of dough to 1⁄4-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut with desired cookie cutters. (We used flower and starfish cutters.) Place on lightly greased baking sheets.
3. Bake at 350° for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges of cookies are lightly browned. Cool cookies 1 minute on baking sheets, and remove to wire racks to cool completely.
4. Dip cookies in Glaze and sprinkle, while wet, with sparkling sugar and sprinkles.  Yield: 20 medium size cookies or 40 small cookies.

Thick, Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

recipe courtesy of smittenkitchen.com

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (I often use a half teaspoon, but I like more salt in my baked goods)
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts, if using them.
3. At this point you can either chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, or scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them. You could also bake them right away, if you’re impatient, but I do find that they end up slighly less thick.
4. The cookies should be two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes (your baking time will vary, depending on your oven and how cold the cookies were going in), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.

Note:  This recipe is neither dairy or gluten free.