Kricket Cakes

I baked these in memory of John’s dad who recently passed away. He loved peanut butter cookies “with no nuts.” I fancied them up a bit (just cuz I gotta!) with rich drizzled chocolate. I will miss him and think of him fondly whenever I eat these cookies!

I based this recipe on Alton Brown’s Peanut Butter Cookies from “I’m Just Here for More Food.” These cookies are on the crunchy side and jam packed with peanut butter flavor. I used semi-sweet chocolate for the drizzly top of goodness, but you could substitute milk or dark chocolate to your liking. Makes approximately 30 large cookies.

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 whole egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 cup large crystal sugar (for sprinkling on top)
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl, set aside
3. Beat the egg and egg yolk together in a separate small bowl, set aside
4. Cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or with an electric hand mixer.
5. Add the oil and peanut butter to the creamed mixture and continue beating until smooth
6. Add the beaten eggs and vanilla extract and continue beating until well combined
7. Add the flour mixture and mix on low until well incorporated
8. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes
9. Form dough into large balls on cookie sheet (approximately two level tablespoons each)
10. Press dough down with a fork creating a criss cross pattern
11. Sprinkle dough with large crystal sugar
12. Bake for 14-18 minutes
13. Transfer to cooling rack
14. Melt chocolate pieces in double boiler (pan or bowl over boiling water)
15. Remove from heat when almost completely melted
16. Spoon melted chocolate into a small plastic sandwich bag
17. Cut a small hole in one bottom corner of the bag and drizzle chocolate over the cooled cookies
18. Chill cookies in refrigerator or freezer until chocolate is hard, at least 15 minutes

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This entry was posted on Sunday, September 7th, 2008 at 10:18 pm and is filed under Cookies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.