World’s Best Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups self-rising flour
sugar, for coating

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream together butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and sugar until nice and smooth.
3. Add egg and vanilla and beat in well with a spoon.
4. Gradually add the self-rising flour. Dough will be stiff.
5. Form one inch balls and roll in sugar (I like to toss a dozen of the dough balls into a bag with sugar, shake gently to coat and then leave them in the bag for a couple minutes so a thicker coat of sugar adheres to the dough, then give another light shake before removing them from the bag. But just giving them a quick roll is fine).
6. Place sugared dough balls onto an UNGREASED baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Flatten balls with the back of a fork (or if you want flat tops you can flatten them with the bottom of a drinking glass. I usually flatten them with the textured side of my meat cleaver giving the cookies a nice waffle pattern).
7. Optional step: You can sprinkle a little extra sugar onto the tops after they are flattened if you like. It adds a little “crunch” to this soft cookie.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges just start to turn brown. Remove from the oven and cool cookies on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to cooling racks.
9. Note: While baking one batch of cookies, cover the remaining dough with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out. I generally form the dough balls for the next batch while the previous batch is cooling on the baking sheet.
10. Variation: To give a Christmas touch. Dip the bottom half of the dough balls in regular sugar, then dip the top half of the balls in colored sugar crystals. Then flatten and bake as directed.
11. Enjoy!

36 cookies
time to make 1 hour 30 min prep