Peanut Butter Cookies

When I was lining up the shot above, turning and tilting my cookie pile just so, I backed up to take the picture. It was so silent in my house...the sound of the rain was all there was. I steadied myself, let out my breath and *WHAM!!!!!!* the curtain rod came crashing down all at once, bringing the curtain with it and causing the plate to wobble dangerously. After I lunged forward and took a sigh of relief, I realized with a start that the photo looked pretty with the curtain all up in it. And so, behold my cookie/curtain picture.

True story.

I was surprised at the deliciousness of this cookie. Not surprised as in, "Boy I really thought that would suck," but more like, "Boy. I really didn't expect it to be that good!" Perfect texture. Perfect flavor. Not too soft, not irritatingly crunchy. Just all 'round awesome.

Preheat your oven to 350 and drag out a big mixing bowl (for you electric mixer folks) or your stand mixer (for those of you who are lucky or have a trust fund or a wealthy spouse or both). Combine:
1 stick Earth Balance buttah
1/2 cup peanut butter (non-hydrogenated please, because choosy Moms do NOT choose Jif)
3/4 cup sugar

Turn your mixer up and let it rock for a few minutes, until everything is smoooooth and nice. Then add:
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs molasses (just eyeball it...no one wants to clean molasses out of teensy weensy spoons)

Mix until smooth. Again. Then, toss in:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbs cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
dash salt

Mix again, on low speed until things come together. Turn off the mixer, grab a spoon, and add:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (that's right, more flour)

You've abandoned your mixer in favor of a gentler apparatus because you don't want hockey puck cookies, ok? Better yet, drop the spoon and use your hands to finally bring the dough together, mooshing and smooshing like a crazy person. The dough should be just wet enough to hold together when you squeeze it, not crumble away and be sad. If your dough is too dry, add a tablespoon of soy milk and mix again (the varying moisture level of peanut butter is the cause behind the uncharacteristic indecision).

Done? Sweet. Take a wad of dough and work it into a disk, like so:
This method is far easier than doing the 'ol "smash the ball of dough on the pan" trick...that'll just make it crumble. Cracks are fine. Crumbles are not.

Now, for some reason, someone, somewhere decided that peanut butter cookies need cross-hatch fork marks over the top of them. Why is this? Does anyone know? Is it this way because it's always been this way? Is it one of those things?

Do it or don't, whichever floats your boat. I won't tell if you decide to be a rebel. A maverick. A turncoat. A nonconformist. A badass.

I decided to push my revolution off till the morrow. Cross-hatches win...this time.
Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the edges are just barely browned. When they come out of the oven, you'll need to let them relax for 10 minutes or so before you even THINK of moving them! For realsies.

(recipe only slightly adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar)