Each Christmas Eve I drive to my grandparents’ home, say a fast hiya, and energy stroll by the lounge — the place Nationwide Lampoon’s Christmas Trip performs on loop — to the kitchen. On the counter sits the true motive I’m right here: a tin printed with snowflakes and snowmen and crammed with stacks of stout and sparkly sugar-coated peanut butter cookies. They’re in the identical tin, in the identical spot, yearly, and each is at all times uniformly smooth and excellent. The one inconsistency is which sort of cookie I attain for first: one with a Hershey’s Kiss pressed into it, or a plain cookie carrying nothing however its crisscross sample. (The Hershey’s Kiss model at all times wins: The candy, milky chocolate heart and salty peanut butter dough are an irresistible combo.)
It’s my grandma who lovingly measures, mixes, and bakes dozens of those peanut butter cookies for my household yearly. Though there are some issues she lets me make together with her — I realized find out how to roll stromboli once I was a baby and have been spooning wealthy, eggy pizzelle dough onto her classic Vitantonio iron since I used to be a young person — these cookies are usually not certainly one of them. Each time I’d ask her for the recipe, or to stroll me by baking them, she would shoo me away, saying, “They’re simply Jif! Go get a jar of Jif and comply with the recipe.” So I lastly determined to comply with her directions and get a jar of Jif — solely to seek out that there was no recipe on the label, lid, or wherever else.
Determined for a heat peanut butter cookie, I turned to the web. It led me to a recipe that does certainly come from a Jif jar, but additionally requires shortening, one thing I’ve by no means purchased in my life. As an alternative of crossing that ingredient off my bucket listing, I made the manager determination to substitute it with softened butter. It appeared to repay: The cookies got here out of the oven smooth, salty, and just a little cakey. However they have been lacking the signature indentations I’d pressed into them with a fork earlier than baking, and they didn’t even barely resemble those my grandma makes. Hers are tinier and thicker, and every one has distinct crisscross marks. Mine have been ample, however hers are impeccable: candy, chewy, and not possible to cease consuming.
Did I mismeasure an ingredient? Did my grandma chill her dough to forestall spreading? Was the shortening non-negotiable? I swallowed my satisfaction and known as my grandma for solutions, hoping she’d assist me resolve what went improper. I let her know I’d baked her Jif jar peanut butter cookie recipe, however admitted mine turned out saltier than hers and had a way more distinct peanut butter style. That they have been tremendous smooth however not very chewy, most likely as a result of they unfold within the oven, one thing I don’t keep in mind hers ever doing. “Did you employ evaporated milk or condensed milk?” she requested. I paused. I didn’t use any milk. Because it seems, the recipe on her Jif jar 25 years in the past was not the identical because the far more current one I had adopted.
My grandma’s recipe requires a bit extra peanut butter, and instead of brown sugar, a whole can of sweetened condensed milk. I considered testing a batch proper then and there to check the 2 cookies aspect by aspect, till I seen her recipe additionally substitutes “biscuit baking combine” for flour. I’ve had dangerous, and well-documented, experiences baking with Bisquick previously, so evidently, I didn’t begin a batch of the condensed milk-Bisquick cookies. And that’s effective, as a result of I’ve eaten so a lot of them in my life that I’ll always remember their intense peanut butter scent or the best way their delicate, sugary crust cracks below my tooth. My cookies definitely weren’t these, however the recipe I discovered on-line nonetheless left me with a tall plate of buttery peanut butter cookies that required no chilling, rolling in sugar, or particular substances. They arrive collectively simply and rapidly sufficient to justify a weeknight batch and keep smooth for days. If my grandma’s are the proper vacation cookie, these are the proper weeknight cookie.
