Every since I first encountered a bright red nut-grinding machine in a grocery store, I’ve been a fan of fresh ground peanut butter. You can see the shelled peanuts in the hopper (and often almonds in a neighboring machine) and watch them come out the dispenser as creamy nut butter. The result isn’t the ground peanut clump submerged under an inch of oil that you often find when opening jarred natural peanut butter, and it lacks the added butter, sugar, salt, and preservatives of aggressively marketed brands. It’s just nuts.

Peanut butter features in all sorts of baked goods, but as I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, many recipes were originally written for peanut butter spreads already heavy in butter and sugar. It took me several batches of cookies to adapt the recipe I grew up with for fresh ground peanut butter. It was well worth all that sampling and experimenting: these cookies are easy enough to make for everyday snacking yet tasty enough that I can add them to a holiday cookie tray.

Learn more about baking with natural peanut butter and get the complete recipe for Fresh Ground Peanut Butter Cookies in my column.

Make it, share it.
Tag @twiceastastyblog and #twiceastastyblog

Twice as Tasty

Once I had a basic peanut butter cookie recipe made with fresh ground peanut butter, I found I could put a few fun twists on the flavors and presentation. For chocolate–peanut butter cookies, I mix in 1 cup of bittersweet chocolate chips. The dough has also become my base for peanut butter thumbprint or blossom cookies, with an easy ganache piped into the center.

The dough freezes well too; shape it into balls, freeze them on a cookie sheet for about 1 hour, and then transfer them to a labeled zip-close freezer bag. If they soften at room temperature for about an hour, you can crosshatch or press your thumb into them before baking.

When I started playing with adding sourdough starter to cookies, I loved its flavor in peanut butter cookie dough. For sourdough peanut butter cookies, mix 1/2 cup (120 grams) of 100% hydration sourdough starter into the butter and peanut butter, and then use just 6 tablespoons of milk and 2 cups of flour. Chill the dough for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator to develop the flavor, which will have a slight tang that brings out the salty–sweet base.

Excited about baking more everyday cookies? Here are just a few other cookie recipes on the blog. You can find more in the recipe index.

• Chocolate–Sour Cream Cookies
• Pumpkin–Chocolate Cookies
• Smoky Oatmeal–Cranberry Cookies
• Snickerdoodles
• Triple Gingersnaps

I made peanut butter cookie dough when I was testing and reviewing wooden spoons for The Spruce Eats. Learn more about my favorite mixing spoons in this article. You can find more of my work off the blog here.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.