I don't think I made peanut butter cookies until I was an adult and had almost adult children.  I don't really know why. I remember went I was a kid we usually had marshmallow treats.  I think I ate Rice Krispies almost every morning for breakfast.  I remember when we did make cookies, it was usually chocolate chip cookies.  I loved them but hated making them.  stirring the dough with a wooden spoon was so much work.  I have no idea why we beat the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla with a beater and then when we added flour we switched to a wooden spoon.  It seemed so hard and took forever. Licking the beaters was a treat in itself and we never thought about food poisoning from the eggs.  It was just part of making cookies.  Fast forward to me being a mom and one day I decided to just beat the flour into the sugar, egg and vanilla mix and my cookie life changed.  I never again used a wooden spoon to mix in the flour.  Then I discovered peanut butter cookies.  Oh so easy. I was given a couple of cookbooks a very long time ago that would be overlooked these days. The first one is a Betty Crocker Cookbook. The cover, if I had it was orange and in the introductory page it has this phrase: "Someone brought you a brace of pheasants, " I don't think anyone has ever brought me a brace of pheasants. The photos are from 1950 or 1960 or so the photos suggest.  Food photography has been around a long time.  It's just gotten better or maybe our sense of style has evolved.  The other cookbook is a 3 ring Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook in red and white gingham print. It's in this cookbook that I've found the peanut butter cookie recipe.  Again we can guess the date of the edition by the photos in the book. Think Mrs Doubtfire hair styles.  There is even a paragraph about food photography in it.  It is in this second book that I found the recipe for the cookies.  Oh you can find all kinds of recipes on pinterest for them with all sorts of variations but I really like this one. Besides I think it is one of two recipes that I use from the book.  I do like the inside cover which has weights and measures, emergency substitutes, ingredient equivalents and broiling timing suggestions.

1/2 cup of butter
1/2 cup peanut butter (I like the crunchy kind)
1 1/4 cups  flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
extra sugar for topping

preheat oven to 37
Beat together butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg and vanilla until creamy.  Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder and add to creamed butter mixture, mix until incorporated.  Scoop it into balls and roll it in the extra sugar.  Place on cookie sheet and make the crosshatch by pressing with a fork.  Bake at 37 for 7 to 9 minutes.  Cool on a wire baking rack.  An alternative is to make smaller balls and press a hershey kiss in the middle of them.  Chocolate and peanut butter are always a match.  I am pretty sure these only last a day in our house unless I'm taking photos and threaten my family with their life.  But even then I have to be quick, they tend to disappear before I finish taking photos.