peanut butter thumbprints.

I always thought peanut butter and jam goes best with each other but there are some others who go for peanut butter and chocolate instead. Or even peanut butter and nutella.

To test the peanut butter-nutella pairing out, I decided to bake some peanut butter cookies as a vehicle for spoonfuls of that chocolate-hazelnut spread. Just giving myself another way to consume jarfuls of peanut butter and nutella spreads other than shoveling them in with my dessert spoon.

These peanut butter cookies are crunchy through and through. Perhaps they weren't supposed to be like this because I replaced the whole egg with the equivalent amount of egg whites instead but I've always preferred crunchy cookies anyway. I thought they could use a little more peanut butter oomph but as a complement to the nutella, they were acceptable.

I would still prefer the all-time favourite paring of PB and J but these peanut butter nutella thumbprints aren't half as bad especially with an extra sprinkle of sea salt on top.

Peanut Butter Thumbprints
adapted from The Art and Soul of Baking
makes 50

1 3/4 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup creamy salted peanut butter (the commercial kind please)

nutella, jam, etc for filling

Preheat oven to 350F.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

Cream the butter and sugars until smooth and blended. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Add the peanut butter and beat until incorporated. Blend in the dry ingredients just until combined.

Spoon level tablespoons of dough 1 1/2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Using you thumb or the back of a measuring spoon, make a depression in the center of each cookie about 1 inch in diameter.

Bake for 13 to 16 minutes, or until they are firm and golden brown at the edges but still soft in the center. When the cookies come out of the oven, reinforce the indentations with whatever tool you used before. Cool the cookies completely before filling with your desired filling.