=2 quick & easy cookie recipes=

(peanut butter shortbread)

1. Peanut Butter Shortbread

I altered the original recipe of these cookies to make them less sweet, soft and crumbly (as opposed to crisp and hard), and more intensely peanut-buttery—the result is akin to a shortbread bar made of peanut butter, if you can imagine that. If you can't, the best thing to do is to make them. It's super easy.

These proportions make about 9 bars as sized in the picture. 

First take a half cup of butter, a half cup of sugar (brown or white, but probably brown is better), and up to a cup of crunchy peanut butter. You can use almond butter, too, or a combination of nut butters. The general idea, though, is lots of peanut butter. This is the kind of cookie for those who like to stand in front of the pantry and eat peanut butter right out of the jar with a fork. Who'd lick peanut butter off an old boot, a stop sign, an old man's bald head. Add an egg. Mix in a bowl with a hand blender until nice and creamy.

In a separate bowl you sift together 1.25 cups of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, .75 teaspoon of baking soda, .25 teaspoon of salt. Once sifted, stir into the peanut butter  mixture in the first bowl. Form it into a ball or log of dough and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Spoon out onto baking sheet into cookies or bars of desired size and bake at 375 degrees for between 8 and ten minutes. Let the cookies cool thoroughly on the baking sheet to firm up. As it is, they'll tend to be puffy and crumbly and easily fall-apartable compared to typical cookies; the main thing is that they'll be super intensely peanut buttery. 

You can spread jam on the top if you choose and its like a mini peanut butter sandwich sans the typically tasteless bread. It also mitigates for the surfeit of sugar if you feel there is a surfeit of sugar. 


2. Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Cookies

(oatmeal raisin walnut cookies)

This is another so-simple-a-monkey-can-do-it cookie recipe. You'll get a dozen or so cookies using the ingredient amounts given here.

Using a hand-mixer, cream together a half cup of softened butter and a half cup of brown sugar. A quarter cup of sugar will work, too, especially if you're using raisins and want to taste more oat than sugar. Beat in an egg next and add a teaspoon of vanilla extract. 

In a second bowl add a cup of flour, a half teaspoon of baking soda, and a half teaspoon of salt. Shake in as much cinnamon as you think suits you. Take the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix it into the bowl with the dry. Then stir in 1.5 cups of quick-cooking rolled oats. Finally, add the raisins and chopped walnuts. I've never been crazy about raisins in things. They looked like mouse turds to me, but I've mostly gotten over my aversion to them and my husband likes them a lot. So I add a lot of raisins and a generous amount of chopped walnuts so that each cookie will be packed full of goodies.

Chill the dough for at least an hour.

When ready, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and spoon out cookie dough onto a prepared cookie sheet. Press into shape. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for an extra five minutes when you remove them from the oven. They'll continue to cook and firm up. Remove the cookies at that point to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Or just start eating them.