The BEST Peanut Butter Cookies. Ever.

I love baking cookies. I love eating up the cookie dough. The problem (well it could be a blessing) is that I don't really like to eat them after I have made them. I will eat a few fresh out of the oven, but the next day, I am kind of over it. I don't think it is because I make bad cookies. Everyone else seems to like them. I just don't think they are that good if they aren't right out of the oven. I even try to mimic that by microwaving them a few seconds to make them soft and melty. It helps but I am still not excited about the cookies any more.

Until I found this recipe on my favorite food blog Chocolate Covered Katie. Remember my earlier dessert-aholic blog about finding her healthy dessert blog? I also hadn't tried any of the recipes at that point and promised to report back. In all honesty I have made probably 10 of her recipes but unfortunately I never reported back. Why not? Because the times I made her very easy and very quick recipes was when an intense craving had come upon me and I had to get dessert and get it FAST! Based on the immediacy on which I needed the dessert, the process and result didn't last long. At long last though, I had to share one recipe because it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Katie calls it her Secret Peanut Butter Cookies. I don't know what the secret is, except maybe they are the best peanut butter cookies I have ever had. Yum yum and yum! They also are very quick and easy to make and result in just one pan. Which is just enough with the speed on how these cookies disappear.

You will need the following ingredients:

1/2 cup peanut butter

3/4 tsp baking soda

3 T flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 T brown sugar

2 T applesauce

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

First mix all the dry ingredients together.

Then add all the wet ingredients.

Then mix them together with a few simple strokes of a spoon.

Drop them into small balls onto your greased cookie pan.

Grab a fork to give them a criss-cross pattern and stick into the oven for 6 - 8 minutes on 350. I like mine chewy so I took them out at 6 minutes. 8 minutes gives you crispier cookies with just a little bit of chewiness.

Did you know that cookies still bake slightly after you take them out of the oven?! I never even thought of that but it blows my mine! Since I am into the chewier more cookie dough like cookies (another solution to my cookie boredom as mentioned earlier) I will know take out all my cookies early.

Do you have any favorite cookie recipes? If so, please pass them along. I can even feature them on the blog if you would like! I am always up for trying new recipes!

PS - Looking back at these pictures it solidifies our need for new lighting in the kitchen. I apologize for everything being YELLOW! Grr. Florescent lights, yellow countertops, yellow walls, yellowish cabinets. Look at this kitchen house tour post to see all of that and more.