Does anybody know anything about peanut butter cookies???!!!?

Question

I don't need ANY recipies!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok, what i mean is does anyone know the origin of the peanut butter cookie? Who invented it??? what country? all that good stuff. i know they are delicious. duh!!!

Answer 1

Peanut butter cookies
Small cakes composed of nuts, dried fruits, and spices were prepared by ancient cooks. These early cakes were very different from what we eat today. They were more bread-like and sweetened with honey. The Romans are usually credited with spreading such recipes throughout Europe. Medieval bakers prefered white sugar and perfected gingerbread, fruitcake and a host of related sweetly spiced recipes, many with nuts. Northern European bakers specialized in cookies. When the Dutch arrived in the New World in the 17th century, they brought their cookie recipes with them. Peanuts are a "New World food." About peanuts & peanut butter.

We checked dozens of early 20th century American cookbooks and found peanut cookies recipes were quite common. These, however, called for crushed/chopped peanuts as an ingredient. It is not until the early 1930s that we find peanut butter listed as an ingredient in cookies. The 1933 edition of Pillsbury's Balanced Recipes contains a recipe for Peanut Butter Balls which instructs the cook to roll the dough into balls and press them down with the tines of a fork. This practice is still common in America today. Recipe here:


"Peanut Butter Balls
Recipe makes 5 dozen small cookies
Temperature: 375 F.
1 cup Pillsbury's Best Flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1. Sift flour, salt and soda together.
2. Cream peanut butter and shortening; add sugar gradually.
3. Add unbeaten egg, lemon juice and grated rind; beat well.
4. Stir in dry ingredients. Chill dough thoroughly.
5. Form dough into small balls; place on greased baking sheet; press each cooky once with tines of a fork to flatten. Bake in moderate oven."
---Balanced Reicpes, Mary Ellis Ames [Pillsbury Flour Mills Company:Minneapolis] 1933 (recipe 76)

Related food? peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.

Why the classic criss-cross pattern?
1930s recipes instructed cooks to create criss-cross pattern on cookie with the tines of a fork. They did not specify why. Neither do subsequent cookbooks. Craig Claiborne's observations on the subject are quite enlightening:

"It has been pointed out, on occaision, that you never can tell what on earth interests readers of this column and to what degree. With tongue in cheek, we stated recently that we had a file of letters marked Unanswered and Unanswerable. We quoted one of those letters, not fictional, in which someone aked if we could explain why peanut butter cookies were creased with a fork before baking. We didn't really expect an answer to that, but replies we got. One reader wrtoe as folows: The cookies are creased with a fork, she informed us, to make them crisper. "One of my sons," she continued, "once answered this technique and baked one pan of cookies plain, the other with the tradtional fork creases on top. The plain peanut butter cookies did not taste as good and seemed a bit soggy in the center. "Since the peanut butter cookie dough is quite rich, I think the fork creases expose just enough dough to add a bit more crispy crust for better results. Another reader offered this conjecture: "Most cookies dropped by rounded teaspoonsful will flatten in the oven and bake evenly. Is there something in peanut butter cookie dough that prevents it from flattening out by itself? The peanut butter, for example? Pressing the dollop with the tines of a fork would ssure the dough flattens properly and, therefore, bakes evenly." But the explanation about pressing those cookies that we like best came from Sylvia Lavietes of New Haven, Conn.: "Your column today contained an inquiry regarding peanut butter cookies. Well, a stupid question calls for a stupid answer. Peanut butter cookies are crisscrossed ino order to make it possible to distinguish then from chcoolate chip cookies in the cookie jar."
---"The Fork and the Cookie," Craig Claiborne, New York Times, April 2, 1979 (p. A17)

Answer 2

i found this on the internet. 1 cup peanut butter 1 cup sugar 1 lg. egg mix well drop by teaspoons onto baking sheet, press with a fork to make criss cross pattern. bake at 350 for 9 minutes. the girl who i found this from said they will stay soft and are delicious. haha, hope i helped. :]

Answer 3

They are not good for someone with a peanut allergy.

My hubby loves them so I bake them all the time, however I can't stand them?

Was there a part of your question missing or you just want to know if Betty Crocker was answering questions tonite? LOL j/k

Answer 4

I know that they're are incredibly delicious and awesome when you put reese's cups on top of them. Yummy Yummy. I want to eat some now.. But I have the stomach flu..

Answer 5

They are the best. Bake 'em a few minutes less than the recipie calls for so they'll be chewy!

Answer 6

Well, they taste amazing with peanut butter smeared ontop, and chocolate chips sprinkled on top as well... Mmm.

Answer 7

Yeah, don't overbake them or they get hard. Put a hershey's kiss in the middle when you pull them out of the oven. My family's fave cookie.

Answer 8

Silly question, if you don't need a recipe...
2nd and most important they taste like peanut butter...

Answer 9

They are great. And if you use a cookie cutter and a potato masher, they will all be the same size and shape.

Answer 10

Yes, I love to dunk them into a glass of milk!