Peanut Butter Cookies

My friend pointed out the other day that I haven't posted many dessert recipes on this blog.  It's true.  But don't think for a second that it's because I'm some kind of dessert-hating freak.  In fact, I have a terrible sweet tooth.  I would much rather eat chocolate and pie than oranges and brussels sprouts.  I'm also lazy when it comes to sweets.  Why would I spend half the night rolling dough into balls the size of small walnuts when I can dig into a carton of cookies 'n cream in two minutes?

Anyway, since I don't want my teeth to rot out of my head before I'm thirty, and because I don't want to end up with the figure of a sumo wrestler, and since I have more fun cooking with real food, my dessert-making enterprises are pretty minimal.

These cookies, though, are worth the effort.  I've been making them since I was a kid with the recipe in my mom's well-worn copy of the 1950s Betty Crocker cookbook.  You don't stuff them with cream cheese, or add Nutella to the dough, or roll them in extra peanut butter, or deep fry them.  They're just plain old classic peanut butter cookies, and they're great.  (And gone already.  Oops.)

Peanut Butter Cookies (Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book)
Yield:  3 dozen
Time:  1 hour +

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Combine first five ingredients (through egg) in a large bowl (I just use a sturdy mixing spoon, but a hand mixer also works).  In a separate bowl, sift or whisk together remaining ingredients.  Gradually add dry ingredients to wet.  Chill dough (ten minutes in the refrigerator is usually enough; I like to chill the baking sheets too).

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Roll dough into balls the size of small walnuts (about 1" diameter).  Place 2 to 3 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheet.  Flatten in a crisscross pattern with a fork dipped in flour.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes (less for darker pans), until lightly browned on bottom.  Let rest on pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a baking rack.