Cake Day: Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies

I have a secret: I don’t have measuring cups.

I don’t have measuring spoons, a scale, a thermometer for my oven… anything. I’m basically baking blind.
When I first started baking, all I had to contend with was my mother’s perfect electric oven. A digital thermometer alerted me when the oven had reached the appropriate temperature, and my first few batches of oatmeal cookies turned out perfectly.

I then moved to Toronto: the oven was an electric, but there was no gauge. No problem… I just preheated for a really, really long time to make sure everything was working. I’m over-cautious… can’t help it.

My oven in my first Paris apartment had a dial in celsius that showed me where it was supposed to be, although I think it ran a bit hot. Oh well… I still managed to get it close to where I wanted it to be.

When I moved in to Alex’s apartment, I was greeted with my first gas oven, complete with a dial that was just a graded line from thick to thin: not even a guess for which temperature I was near.

“No problem,” Alex says. “Just bake au feeling.”

I don’t do anything au feeling, much less bake. I plan out my days on post-its. I color code everything. I buy my plane tickets as soon as they go on sale (one year before the date of travel). I plan my menus weeks in advance. Sure, I might change them, but the plan, the organization, is there in some form. Baking is made to be an exact science. You are not supposed to bake au feeling. I, of all people, should not be baking au feeling.

I burned a lot of cookies when I first moved in here. Cookies that spread all over the baking sheet or burned to a crisp without the chocolate chips even melting. I pulled cakes out of the oven that were gummy on the inside and crisp on the outside. I went in search for an oven thermometer and came back empty-handed.

But this week, I have accomplished something. My oven and I have finally gotten to know each other, and I have baked a batch of cookies that did not spread or burn.

The not spreading may have something to do with the fact that I recently learned that French all-purpose flour is comparable to American pastry flour and is not suitable for chewy, delicious cookies. I bought some organic flour that’s closer to the American grain, and these cookies stayed exactly the way they were supposed to: thick and soft with criss-cross patterns on the top. They taste exactly the way a peanut butter cookie should taste: like peanut butter and nothing else.

Alex watched as I got into my rhythm, forming balls of cookie dough in my palm, rolling them in sugar, placing them on the baking sheet and making the criss-cross pattern with the tines of my fork.

“Can I try?”

It was like watching a kid: so unsure of what he was doing. He took too much dough, rolled it in the sugar before it was a ball. “Here,” I offered, “Let me show you.”

I think you can probably tell which cookies are Alex’s: the ones that look like they were made by an overzealous little boy.

Alex’s version of baking au feeling. He may be better at that than I am.

Note: Please remember that if you would like your weekly baked goods featured here as a part of Cake Day on Saturdays, feel free to send me a permalink to your post, and I’ll include it in my roundup!
Peanut Butter Cookies (adapted from Baking Blonde)

1 cup + 2 Tbsp. peanut butter
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp. milk
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup sugar (for rolling dough balls, may need more or less)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the peanut butter and butter together until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until combined. Add the egg and milk.

In a bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together. Gently add to creamed mixture and mix until just combined. Chill dough for at least 15 minutes.

Run your hands under cold running water to cool them, then roll tablespoonfuls of dough into balls. Roll the dough balls in the sugar until covered all over, and place dough balls on a buttered baking sheet. Carefully press each ball with fork tines to create a criss-cross pattern.

Bake for 5 to 8 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the tops have puffed up and feel cooked through when you touch them. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheets for 5-10 minutes… if you can wait that long.