Occasional Sugar: December 2010

My family kicked off this holiday season with our traditional group decorating of the family Christmas tree. This year, my mom suggested a cookie bake-off. Best idea ever! I hope it turns into a yearly tradition. My mom, sister, niece, and I each chose a recipe to bring and we ladies baked all day while my dad and husband decorated the house with Christmas lights. After we warmed up with some spiked cider, we enjoyed a delicious dinner and then decorated the tree. This holiday season, I'm doing everything I can to enjoy myself and time spent with family is a top priority.

For my recipe (big surprise) I picked something from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. I don't mean to sound like a broken record but this book is amazing! It would make the perfect Christmas gift for anyone on your shopping list. It was put together by the guys who own Baked, a bakery in Brooklyn made famous when Oprah put their brownies on her "O List" of "A few things I think are just great." Well, I haven't baked their brownies yet but every other recipe I've tried has been better than great. I'm super-excited because they have come out with a brand new book - Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented. It's on my Christmas list so I'll hopefully be baking from it very soon!

I picked out their Peanut Butter Cookie recipe and am so glad I did. Yummy! Best peanut butter cookies I've ever had! They bake up HUGE and have a perfect chewy texture with crispy edges. Definitely make sure to use milk chocolate, not semi-sweet. I believe the book when it writes, "Semisweet chips taste almost bitter against the peanut butter, while the milk chocolate is a natural and delightful combo." Check out these monsters!

Peanut Butter Cookies
from Baked: New Frontiers of Baking

1 3/4 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened,
cut into 1" pieces
1 cup sugar plus more for sprinkling
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup creamy peanut butter
6 oz milk chocolate, chopped

Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars together until fluffy. Scrape down bowl and add eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. Mixture will look light and fluffy. Add vanilla and peanut butter until just combined. Add half the flour mixture and mix for 15 seconds. Add remaining flour mixture and mix until just combined. Do not over-mix!

Fold in chocolate with a spatula. Cover bowl tightly and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 375. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto baking sheets, at least 2 inches apart (seriously, these babies get BIG when they bake up).With the palm of your hand, very gently press each cookie down so it forms a very tall disk shape. Keep it tall!

Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with granulated sugar and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until the edges of the cookies just begin to brown. Remove the pan from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Transfer individual cookies to wire rack to cool completely - or scarf down while still warm.

Here are some pics of the beautiful cookies we baked...