For those of you who enjoy cookies, June 12 is National Peanut Butter Cookie Day. There are a lot of different peanut butter cookie recipes with many different ingredients. I wanted to go back to the beginning to find out where they came from and how they were first made.
George Washington Carver (1864-1943), compiled 105 peanut recipes from various cookbooks, agricultural bulletins and other sources. In his 1916 Research Bulletin called How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption, he included three recipes for peanut butter cookies calling for crushed chopped peanuts as an ingredient. It was not until the early 1920s that peanut butter was listed as an ingredient in the cookies. The Peanut Butter Balls recipe in the 1923 edition of Pillsbury’s Balanced Recipes contains the first known written instance of instructing the cook to press the cookies using fork tines. The recipe does not advice why this this should be done. However, peanut butter cookie dough is dense and without being pressed, it will not cook evenly.
Attached is George Washington Carver’s original peanut butter cookie recipe as well as a more modern and healthy version. I hope you have time to make a batch of one of them or your own family recipe and enjoy…
George Washington Carver’s Peanut Butter Cookies