One of the best parts of the Christmas season – besides spreading joy and cheer of course – are all the delicious Christmas cookies. While there are tins and trays of Italian Christmas cookies, there are no specific cookies you have to make at Christmas. Simply making your favorite cookies at Christmas time would do.
Warm cookies are also delicious treats on cold winter days, and not just during the holiday season. Baking is a great activity all winter long, whether done with someone or alone, to heat up any home with a hot oven and the scent of cookies filling the air. Also, if you need a winter date idea this would be a fun night or daytime activity where you can work together for a tasty treat.
However, not everyone is a baking connoisseur. With practice, though, baking can be an easy skill to learn. Just remember to start simple and work towards the goal of more difficult recipes with each new attempt. For anyone looking to being their baking endeavors, the simplest cookie to make is a peanut butter cookie.
This is the one I started with for my first try at baking, and it is so simple there is little chance of anything going wrong.
To start, there are only four ingredients you will need for this cookie: peanut butter, sugar, vanilla extract and an egg. With only a few ingredients, both the prep and cooking time quite short and the overall baking time about 25 minutes depending on the quality of your oven.
The other part of this recipe that adds to its simplicity is the tools required. All the ingredients are stirred together rather than mixed requiring an electric mixer. The only cooking tools needed for this cookie are a medium sized mixing bowl, a large flat spoon or spatula, a fork and a large thick baking sheet.
Before you begin mixing ingredients, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Since there are only a few ingredients to prep and mix, this should be just enough time for your oven to heat up. If you have an electric one, it may indicate the temperature as it heats up.
If not, the cooking time needed for the cookies will indicate as well. I do not have an electric oven, and the prep time was enough to almost heat the oven to the desired temperature. I simply left the cookies in for another eight minutes after checking the progress. However, my oven is a tad on the older side. This part may be a judgement call for each baker.
In the large mixing bowl, combine 1 cup of peanut butter, 1 cup of regular white sugar, 1 large egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Stir all these ingredients together until it looks well mixed.
Next, shape the dough into 1-inch balls. When doing this, it may feel like the ingredients aren’t mixed well – almost a grainy feeling like you were holding sand. Rest assured, this is okay as long as you can see all the ingredients are mixed together thoroughly.
Be sure to place the balls of dough 1 inch apart when putting them onto your baking sheet. Before placing the cookies in the oven, take a fork and gently flatten them a bit. Keep in mind that you may need to place the cookies a little more than an inch apart because they expand.
However, from experience, they separate easily with a little pressure from a spatula if they do blend together after they have cooled.
Finally, place your sheet of cookies into the oven, which has preheated to 375 degrees. Leave them in for 15 minutes, then check them. Depending on the quality of oven or how far in advanced you preheated your oven, they may need a few more minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on them, though, so they do not burn. Once time is up, let the cookies cool.
Many recipes say to do this on a cookie rack, but leaving them on the baking sheet is perfectly fine too.
And there you have it! You have baked your very first batch of delicious peanut butter cookies. Be sure to taste your finished product and document your success – who doesn’t love a good food-gram after all. After your first try, feel free to make any adjustments depending on how your first batch comes out.
Add other ingredients, like chocolate chips, or learn from any mistakes you might make. Not everyone is successful on the first try, but that is what practice is for. Don’t forget to have fun while you’re doing it. After all, baking should be fun and not a stressful chore.
Happy baking!
