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Recipe File: Peanut Butter Cookies
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allish



Joined: 29 May 2006
Posts: 2
Location: Thornton, CO

PostPosted: Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:56 pm    Post subject: Press with a fork? Reply with quote

This seems to be the site to ask this question...

Why do we press peanut butter cookies with a fork before baking them?
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Katy
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 1:55 am    Post subject: A Natural peanut butter without aflatoxin Reply with quote

Just use Arrowhead Mills brand Organic peanut butter if you want to avoid the cancer-causing mold toxin found in peanuts, according to Dr. Mercola. It does cost more, though. But I imagine in the long run it is cheaper than chemotherapy. I've found it in the Kroger health food section before (if you don't live near a health food store).

According to Dr. Mercola's book Total Health Program, not only are aflatoxins a problem in peanut butter, but also peanuts have one of the highest pesticide residues of any crop. He says that the natural brand "Arrowhead Mills", uses peanuts grown in New Mexico
Quote:
where aflatoxin has not been reported as a problem due to the dry conditions, and thier organic peanut butter is free of pesticides.
He goes on to say
Quote:
you can pour off the excess oil on the top to lower the omega-6 content and further improve the vitally important omega-3:6 ratio.

But I might not pour off the oil if you'll be baking as this could alter the recipe. Besides, we're making cookies here, not trying to get our daily dose of omegas!
Thanks for having such a great website!

-Katy
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Enne
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 7:30 am    Post subject: Size of cookies Reply with quote

I read with amusement the fuss you people made about the size of your cookies. Does it matter if the cookies turn out 1 inch or 2 inches as long as it tastes good?

And for the question on why you use a fork to press the cookie...I would say its just to flatten the cookies and make some patterns on it in the process.

Lastly, I'm for weighing my ingredients in grams...I've always wonder how one measure butter in a cup. Stuff it in? Cold? Hmmm...how accurate can that be? Where I am, butter comes in sticks of 250 grams. Smile
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babychica
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 8:13 pm    Post subject: not an engineer, but i love this site Reply with quote

hey everybody out there in engineerland!
i love this site and the comments were hilarious.
im not an engineer, nor do i intend to become one, but i love to cook, always have. i have to say if you wrote a cookbook i would buy it in a nano-second, i know thats not physically possible, but look at the point, not the delivery.
dry and crunchy cookies?
how do you get your family to stay away from them long enough for them to cool, let alone get hard?
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GuestChemist
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 11:06 pm    Post subject: trans fat Reply with quote

I like the site very much.
One correction: I am a chemist with extensive experience in fat and oils.
The statement:
"which as you remember from the Saturated Fats article cannot be trans fats since fully hydrogenated fats are chemically the same as saturated fats"
Is incorrect.
When you hydrogenate any oil or fat, either partially or fully, about 2% trans isomers are formed. (Nature makes only cis isomers)
If nature made the fully saturated fat it would not have any trans fat.
But when man fully hydrogenates an unsaturated fat to a saturated fat about 2% are trans isomers.
So read labels carefully! If it says "hydrogenated" anywhere, it has trans fat.
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ying



Joined: 28 Jan 2007
Posts: 3
Location: SixZeroFour

PostPosted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:00 am    Post subject: Re: Press with a fork? Reply with quote

allish wrote:
This seems to be the site to ask this question...

Why do we press peanut butter cookies with a fork before baking them?


I've tried mine without using a fork to flatten the cookies and they turned out thick and soft. Personally I love crunchy cookies.

Is there another purpose rather than to flatten it and just a pattern on the surface? Does it affect the texture?
Unsure
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Michael Chu



Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 1654
Location: Austin, TX (USA)

PostPosted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:56 pm    Post subject: Re: Press with a fork? Reply with quote

ying wrote:
I've tried mine without using a fork to flatten the cookies and they turned out thick and soft. Personally I love crunchy cookies.

Is there another purpose rather than to flatten it and just a pattern on the surface? Does it affect the texture?

The fork flattening is used mainly to produce the pattern (to preserve the long tradition of crosshatches on a peanut butter cookie). Does it affect the final texture? Minimally - the crosshatching themselves cook up a bit differently from the rest of the cookie and so have a texture difference, but that's a very small part of the cookie. It's mostly costmetic.

These cookies are designed to be soft and chewy - if you like crispy/crunchy cookies, you can try to cook them longer - but chances are we'll need to modify the recipe a bit to get the desired consistency. Replacing the brwon sugar with granulated white sugar should be a good start.
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ying



Joined: 28 Jan 2007
Posts: 3
Location: SixZeroFour

PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 6:41 am    Post subject: Re: Press with a fork? Reply with quote

Michael Chu wrote:
ying wrote:
I've tried mine without using a fork to flatten the cookies and they turned out thick and soft. Personally I love crunchy cookies.

Is there another purpose rather than to flatten it and just a pattern on the surface? Does it affect the texture?

The fork flattening is used mainly to produce the pattern (to preserve the long tradition of crosshatches on a peanut butter cookie). Does it affect the final texture? Minimally - the crosshatching themselves cook up a bit differently from the rest of the cookie and so have a texture difference, but that's a very small part of the cookie. It's mostly costmetic.


These cookies are designed to be soft and chewy - if you like crispy/crunchy cookies, you can try to cook them longer - but chances are we'll need to modify the recipe a bit to get the desired consistency. Replacing the brwon sugar with granulated white sugar should be a good start.



Hi Michael,

Thanks for the advice. I tried replacing the brown sugar entirely with white sugar but the cookies are still so soft that it will break easily if I press it harder.

I followed everything in your recipe except for the sugars,(I used less sugar) and I also replace the egg with 10g of whole egg powder. I've heard that using egg powder rather than fresh eggs will make the cookies last longer. Is that true? How long can cookies using fresh eggs last?
Pls help.. Thanks in advance!
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CAPT Bob
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:12 pm    Post subject: Peanut butter Reply with quote

I've made peanut butter for some time using cocktail peanuts (24 oz) in a blender. Process as long as you want to get the consistancy you want - anything from chunky to super-smooth. It is very superior to commercial peanut butter.

Aflatoxins should not be a problem - most of the moldy peanuts are going to go to commercial peanut butter or animal feed.
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maggie
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 14, 2007 11:45 pm    Post subject: substitute low fat peanut butter Reply with quote

Hi. Great cookies. I'm stuck with a jar of low fat pb by Kraft Disbelief . I'm afraid to substitute it in these great cookies but... do you think it would work? Any suggestions?
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SEETH



Joined: 02 Jun 2007
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 12:11 pm    Post subject: What's wrong with the dough I made? Reply with quote

Thank you for your site. It is simply Excellent!

I followed quite closely the steps. But the dough did not seem to have enough stickiness to gel together. This made it slightly difficult to form nicely into one-inch balls. Worst, when pressed with a fork, it cracks easily at the edge. Any clue what went wrong?
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Guest






PostPosted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can make the cookies the same size more easily if you buy the scoops in a shop. They look like small ice cream scoops, and work really well to make all the cookies the same size, and it's way easier to use.
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Shannon
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 1:29 am    Post subject: Chocolate? Reply with quote

Any way to incorporate some chocolate chips into this recipe...? Or could you just press a chocolate kiss somewhere into the cookie?

Sorry for the dumb question, but I've never made peanut butter cookies before... and I just love the peanut butter/chocolate combination!
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shannon
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I followed the recipe exactly (I'm in Europe-Belgium) and got a sandy, crumbly, dry and not too peanutty cookie. Maybe it is the flour (as the Amsterdam person said).
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Guest






PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 9:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

would using margarine affect the texture of the cookies
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