These are my favorite peanut butter cookies. I wouldn’t kick you out of bed for putting chocolate chips in them. This recipe is from the Fannie Farmer cookbook, one of my favorite cookbooks of all time.

• 1 cup salted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup peanut butter (I prefer Trader Joe’s salted creamy)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (optional)
• extra 1/2 cup granulated sugar for coating fork

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment or grease lightly.

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, and beat well, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Add peanut butter and beat to blend. Add baking soda and flour and stir to combine well. Add chocolate chips if using.

Scoop onto cookie sheets, or roll into balls and place on cookie sheets – about 3 TBSP per cookie, spaced about 2-3 inches apart. Put extra sugar in a small bowl, using a fork, dip in sugar, then press down on each cookie into criss-cross pattern, smushing the cookie to flatten quite a bit (they don’t spread much when baking).

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to show some color, but do not over-bake.