Carpe Hieme! Seize the Winter! Easy Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

From all that I’m hearing from Facebook and Twitter and, you know, good old fashioned e-mail, it’s a pretty cold winter there in the Northern Hemisphere, which to me means perfect for hot chocolate, cookies, and curling up with books. I know, I know; there’s work and school to be attended, intractable cars to get started, and so on, but six months from now, when you’re sweating and roasting, you MIGHT say to yourself “why didn’t I bake some cookies back in January when adding extra heat to the house from the oven would have been nice?”

So carpe hieme. Seize the winter! (I know, I know–easy for me to say, right? I’m in sub-Saharan Africa!) Still, even though it’s 80 plus degrees every day, to me, it’s still cookie season. And peanuts (and peanut butter) are local food here.

Seize the Winter Easy Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Preheat the oven to 300F

Cream together:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup peanut butter

Beat in:

• 1 egg plus one egg yolk

Mix together separately:

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Blend the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined–but don’t overmix. The key to cookies that are not too dry or crumbly is to have the oven preheated and everything completely read before mixing the wet and the dry, and then, not overmixing.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 300F for 15 minutes and cool on a clean counter to maximize chewiness.

Enjoy with hot chocolate. (And open the oven when you’re done to enjoy the extra heat!)