This past weekend, The Astronomer and I traveled to Philadelphia for a beautiful wedding between two of our college friends. Instead of renting a stodgy hotel room near the venue, we opted to stay with our friend James at his parents’ home in Hatboro. Couch surfing doesn’t usually offer the most comfort or privacy, but the warmth, kindness, and hospitality that we received more than made up for it. As a token of my appreciation, I brought along a fresh batch of Bouchon Bakery’s ‘Nutter Butters’ for James and his family to enjoy. Nothing says thank you quite like a sweet homemade treat, at least in my book.
A cross between an oatmeal cream pie and a Girl Scout Do-Si-Do, these Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies are simply amazing. I’m not sure how this New York Times recipe stacks up to Thomas Keller’s original, but the salty, sweet, and peanut buttery cookies that I baked up tasted just about perfect.
The recipe was supposed to yield “24 large cookies,” but I ended up with approximately 20 medium-sized sandwich cookies and 25 singular cookies. I plan on doubling the filling recipe next time around when I prepare these for Eat My Blog Winter 2010. Mark your calendars for December 4!
For cookies
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 pound (4 sticks) butter, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter, preferably Skippy
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup coarsely chopped peanuts
- 2½ cups quick-cooking oats
For filling
- ¼ pound (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter, preferably Skippy
- 1 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar.
Make cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and baking soda; set aside. Using a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and peanut butter. Add sugars and beat at medium speed for 4 minutes, scraping down bowl twice.
At low speed, add eggs and vanilla. Add flour mixture and beat at low speed until well mixed, frequently scraping down bowl. Add peanuts and oats, and mix well. Using an ice cream scoop 2 inches in diameter, place balls of dough on parchment-lined baking sheets at least three inches apart.
Bake until cookies have spread and turned very light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool and firm up, 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely before filling.
Make filling and assemble
Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, peanut butter, and confectioners’ sugar until very smooth. Transfer the filling to a pastry bag or makeshift pastry bag (i.e. Ziploc bag). To assemble cookies, pipe filling on underside of a cookie. Sandwich with another cookie. Repeat.
ohhhh my gawwwwd that looks so dang good!
I swear I will hire you to be my food stylist any day! 😉
OMG! I love Bouchon’s Nutter Butters. In fact, I cannot step inside that bakery without coming out with at least a few of them. The perfect cookie, especially for peanut butter lovers like myself. I’m definitely going to have to try making them at home now to get my fix.
Yum! Do you want to come stay at my place in Portland as well 🙂 I love filled PB cookies. I will definitely be testing out this recipe in the near future.
I’m going to have to buy these at the next EAT MY BLOG event! Peanut butter cookies are my favorite.
looks so delicious! love it!
I will definitely DEFINITELY be buying one of these at Eat My Blog! Yum!
What original cookies you have on your blog! I can’t wait to try some.
One of the best cookie photos I’ve ever seen (the first one on the post). And trust me, I’ve seen hundreds of cookie photos before. I want to make these some time – warm peanut butter cookies are my favorite. Oh and I love that last pic too
those look so good. i wonder if there would be much of a difference if using something other then skippy. because i just love my jif especially the peanut butter and honey one.
Angel – I used generic PB and they turned out terrifically. You’ll do fine with Jif 🙂
Hi. Love your blog, but is there any chance you could enable a “Print” button that strips out the ads, comments etc so that we can print just the recipe? Thanks so much.
-Martina
Martina – You got it! Check the bottom of the post for a printable recipe link 🙂
Awesome! You’re a gem. Thanks very much. It’s such a functional feature, I hope you’ll include it on future posts, if it’s not too much trouble.
Best,
Martina
Thanks for sharing a cookie with me! Twas a life saver!
These were fantastic. They really taste like the nutter butters from Bouchon.
My husband wants to have these cookies for dinner instead of the pasta with corn and burrata I had planned.
I made these for dessert tonight and while they didn’t look as pretty as yours, they sure where delicious!