Peanut Sugar Snaps

It's 3 PM and hunger strikes. Do you know where your snacks are?

Look no further than your peanut snack jar! Remember all of our good times with the National Peanut Council? Well, today we're adding another tasty treat to the canon.

Peanut Sugar Snaps
Here's what you'll need:

1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, well-beaten 
2/3 cup chopped salted or roasted peanuts
1 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
(little loaf dog optional--do you see her?)

1) Cream shortening and peanut butter. Add sugar gradually. Beat in eggs.

2) Add peanuts and extract.
But first, you'll want to chop your peanuts. I used a food processor for this part, while my stand mixer kept the mixing going. You know, with all the mentions they get, KitchenAid should really be sponsoring this blog. Someone get KitchenAid corporate headquarters on the phone. K thanks.

 3) Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir into first mixture.

4) Shape in 1-inch balls and place on greased cookie sheet. 

Ooh, look, an action shot! Honestly, I have no idea whether these are 1-inch balls or what. Does anyone ever take linear measurements when they're baking? Maybe I should keep a ruler handy.

5) Press flat with bottom of small water glass covered with a piece of damp cheese cloth.

I didn't have any cheese cloth handy, so I just took my chances with the glass. It turned out okay and the cookies didn't stick to the glass.

6) Bake in a moderately hot oven at 375 degrees F. for 10-12 minutes. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Here's a thought--I could probably better approximate the size of the cookies by seeing how many cookies my mixture is yielding. I think I ended up with about 3.5 dozen cookies, so probably could have made each ball a little smaller. Guess we didn't need a ruler to tell us that. Oh snap. (See what I did there?)

In hindsight, I also probably could have smooshed each snap a little more with the glass to get them a little...snappier. They turned out chewier than your typical sugar snap, but still tasted great. No one complained in my house.

So there you have it! A snappy solution to satisfy your 3:00 snack needs!