Absolutely Bomb Peanut Butter Cookies [gluten free, dairy free]

Pretend you identify as female and you own a romper with underwires. They poke and prod. They do not bend. Your move.

There is a place in the fabric where you can see a little bud. Do you leave it? Do you tug.

And when you tug, don’t you feel better. Nothing gets to state your shape. You get to shape what you encounter. Click: here.

Because it turns out, I lied to you last year. I just learned this PB recipe is best.

I’m only saying I’m sorry because it’s socially appropriate. I didn’t know. In reality, my fingers are crossed that next year finds me in the same predicament.

Thinking fondly for a moment of Yrsa Daley Ward:

what is now will soon be past

Just because you do it
doesn’t mean you always will.
Whether you’re dancing dust
or breathing light
you’re never exactly the same,
twice.

And here we are, a whole year older and a whole lot bigger and better and prouder and wholer [if that could be a thing for a second]. We sing again, and we move, and we grow, and we laugh and connect and we do good things that makes us feel good and we know now that what we sense is valid and you can hear the quiet crunch, closed mouths and crumbs, on a full moon evening; the sun setting over tea with good company. Who’d have thought we’d end up right here.

Peanut Butter Cookies that just don’t make sense. The shortest ingredient list. Sugar and eggs, vanilla and Skippy, dotted with sea salt flakes.

Lesson learned: time can even transform the things we did not focus upon. And we don’t have to understand why it works. 

One Year: Glazed Lemon Olive Oil Cake
Two Years: Toasted Marshmallow Crispy Treats
Three Years: Dirt Bombs
Four Years: Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Toffee, Marshmallows, and Smoked Sea Salt

Absolutely Bomb Peanut Butter Cookies
From Ovenly via Smitten Kitchen

1 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups smooth peanut butter (I used Skippy)
Coarse-grained sea salt, to finish

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together the light brown sugar and eggs until smooth. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then the peanut butter until smooth and completely incorporated; you shouldn’t be able to see any ribbons of peanut butter. It is ready when it has the consistency of Play-Doh. Chill the dough by freezing it in its bowl for 15 minutes, then stirring it once (so the edges don’t freeze first), before scooping it. Place on prepared pan. Sprinkle the dough balls lightly with coarse-grained sea salt just before baking. Bake smaller cookies for 14 to 15 minutes. When finished, cookies should be golden at edges. They’ll need to set on the sheet for a minute or two before they can be lifted intact to a cooling sheet. Trust me, you should let these cool completely before eating so the different textures (crisp outside, soft inside) can set up.

Do ahead: You can definitely make the dough in advance and either refrigerate it for a couple days or freeze it longer. However, if I were going to freeze it, I’d probably go ahead and scoop it first. You can bake them right from the freezer.