Peanut Butter Earth Day Cookies

Peanut Butter Earth Day Cookies

Peanut Butter Earth Day Cookies

Happy Earth Day! I pinned Sweetopia's Peanut Butter Cut-Out Cookie recipe around Christmas and am just getting around to baking it. I made the dough ahead of time, and covered it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer in a freezer bag. I took the dough out of the freezer the day before I planned to bake the cookies for it to thaw. Peanut Butter fans will love this cookie. The texture is a little crispy and full of a rich peanut butter taste. I made Earth Day cookies to resemble our planet tinting the dough using AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste in Sky Blue and Leaf Green. See recipe below.

Peanut Butter Earth Day Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies Ingredients

Yield: 2 Dozen Cookies

1 cup Smooth Peanut Butter

1 cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened and each stick cut into 8 cubes

2 Extra Large Eggs

3/4 cup Granulated Sugar

3/4 cup Light Brown Sugar

Peanut Butter Earth Day Cookies

4 cups All Purpose Flour (I use King Arthur)

1/2 teaspoon Coarse Salt

2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Pretty Peanut Butter Earth Day Cookies

Directions
Cut each stick of butter into 8 pieces.

Combine in a small bowl the granulated and light brown sugar; set aside.

Sift flour and salt in large bowl and combine with whisk or spatula; set aside.

Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugars together in a bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment on low to medium speed. Mix until incorporated, about 1 minute.

Lining up dough in two rows and alternating the 2 colors.  

Scrape sides of bowl with spatula and mix again for 5-10 seconds more.

Add eggs one at a time. Scrape down bowl with spatula and mix again for another 5 seconds.

Add vanilla extract, and mix for 30-45 seconds.

Slowly add flour mixture and mix on low speed for 1-2 minutes.

The dough combined

When dough clumps around paddle attachment it is ready.

Form dough into a ball. Divide dough in half.

Tinting Dough
Use 6-8 drops of AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste in Sky Blue and then tint the other half in Leaf Green. Continue adding a few drops of color and knead the dough until combined. Divide the dough into golf size balls and line up in two rows, alternating colors. Gather dough together and shape into a ball.

Cookies right out of the ice cream scoop about to get pressed down

Cover dough with plastic wrap, and cool in fridge for 1-2 hours or overnight or freeze in freezer bags if making several days ahead of baking time. When you need the dough, take it out of the freezer one day in advance and put in your fridge. Take out of the fridge 1 hour before baking, so the dough is not rock hard.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Close-up of the dough

Take round dough, and with an ice cream scoop, press firmly into scoop and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper two inches apart. With the palm of your hand, press on each ball and press down on the dough.

Put cookies in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking. They hold their shape when you do this.

Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes, or until edges are slightly browned. My cookies baked in 11 minutes.

Cookies fresh out of the oven

Let cookies cool in baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely, about 1 hour.

Let cookie sheets cool completely before you bake again. I put the cookie sheet in the freezer for 5 minutes. Repeat until you have baked all the cookies.

Cookies on cooling rack

For further information:
For the Peanut Butter Cookie recipe, please visit Sweetopia:
http://sweetopia.net/2014/11/the-perfect-peanut-butter-cut-out-cookie/

Enjoy!

-Sophia/Two Frys