Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Peanut Butter Cut- Out Cookies

For Easter Monster wanted to use all our spring cookie cutters. We wanted a recipe that she could make herself and really I don't have any good sugar cookie recipes...mostly because I find sugar cookies dry and boring. I let her pick a cookie recipe out of the cookbook with the guide line that it have a roll-able dough and this is the one she wanted to try.

Good choice!

Here is a link to the recipe on the Hershey's Kitchen Peanut Butter Cut-Out cookies
As usually I wasn't able to follow the recipe perfectly and had to make it up as we went along.
We had no peanut butter chips or pecans... I am looking forward to making these again following the actual recipe.

I am also really impressed with Monster, Hershey has this recipe listed as Skill Level: Advanced

We substitute creamy peanut butter for the peanut butter chips and creamed the peanut butter and butter together instead of melting it in a pan. We skipped the pecans altogether. Nuts are tricky in my house. I happen to love all of then (except pistachios) and My Love happens to avoid all of them. So adding them is the equivalent to saying,"MaWHAHAHA! They are all MINE!" Hence, they are often skipped.

Monster did most of the mixing...and her arms got tired holding up the hand mixer.
Then she rolled out the dough. The dough was soft so we worked in small batches. It was pretty easy to explain to her how each time you re-roll the dough you want to keep it about the same thickness every time. Also the shapes could be pressed back into shape most of the time if you accidentally broke off a piece... we had a few ducks lose their feet and some poor ear-less bunnies.... But don't worry! She rescued them!

She discovered that the cookie cutters didn't stick if we dipped them in sugar first. I had nothing to do...Monster was able to do this all herself! When she was having trouble moving them from the counter to the pan she solved it herself by getting a frosting knife and using that as a spatula!

The cookie cutters she used were tiny so it made alot of tiny yummy cookies, perfect for popping in your mouth.

I am sure she could do the stove top one with a little more watching over, but I see no reason your kids can't do the recipe the way she did, perfect for a Saturday afternoon "I'm bored!" cure.