Now that it's fall, I'm hoping that I can spend more time baking cookies. This spring and summer, the fruit CSA has kept me busy making cakes and pies and crumbles and the like. And those are all delicious, don't get me wrong. But I love cookies.

I'm toying with beginning another project here on this site, along the lines of The Great Muffin Experiment. For now, I thought I'd bake two different recipes of the same kind of cookie and see which one Kin and I prefer. (Jump to the Recipes) That's the funny thing about all the SEO focus of recipe blogging: there are hundreds of blog posts touting "the best" whatever, but I'm not even sure you can really say that the author did a lot of work in identifying their recipe as such. Plus it's all so damn subjective.

Take peanut butter cookies. I think they tend to be rather dry. I prefer my cookies soft and chewy. Kin agrees. So I found one recipe that touted softness and chewiness, along with another that has a totally different set of ingredients and instructions. These recipes made less than two dozen apiece, so I don't have an overwhelming amount of cookie on hand at the end of this experiment. And I like the idea of actually trying a bunch of cookie recipes before deciding what one is, indeed, the best for our taste-buds here. I mean, I already have a go-to recipe for oatmeal, chocolate chip, and molasses cookies — but what if I'm missing out?!

Super Soft Peanut Butter Cookies

This is based on the recipe on Creme de la Crumb.

Prep time: 10 minutes  ·  Cooking time: 10 minutes  ·  Servings: 21  ·  Calories: 169

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbs Demerara sugar

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.
3. With a stand mixer, cream the butter, peanut butter, and granulated and brown sugars until light and fluffy - about 5 minutes. Mix in the egg and the vanilla extract, scraping down the sides, until blended.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix until just combined.
5. Roll dough into 2-3 tbs size balls. Roll in Demerara sugar.
6. Place balls on cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. (You should fit 12 on a sheet.) Use a fork to make a criss-cross pattern.
7. Bake for 8 minutes. Do not overbake!
8. Allow to cool for 1 minute on sheet, then move to a cooling rack.

Peanut Butter-Miso Cookies

This is based on the recipe by Krysten Chambrot that appears in The New York Times Cooking.

Prep time: 30 minutes  ·  Cooking time: 20 minutes  ·  Servings: 21  ·  Calories: 156

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup white miso
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup Demerara sugar

Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
2. In a stand mixer, combine the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar and beat until light and fluffy - about 5 minutes. Add the peanut butter and miso, then mix in the egg and the vanilla extract, scraping down the sides, until blended.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix until just combined.
4. Refrigerate dough for at least two hours, but as long as overnight.
5. Roll dough into 2-3 tbs size balls. Roll in Demerara sugar.
6. Place balls on cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. (You should fit 12 on a sheet.)
7. Bake for 14 minutes. Remove sheets from oven and smack the sheets on the stovetop. This will flatten the cookies. Return to the oven for another 2-4 minutes.
8. Allow to cool for 1 minute on sheet, then move to a cooling rack.

Some Baking and Tasting Notes

The "super soft" cookies are fairly soft, but I think it's because they are on the verge of being under-baked. They have retained that stick-to-the-roof-of-the-mouth, cloying sensation of peanut butter. I didn't have any Demerara sugar on hand when I made these and just rolled them in granulated sugar instead (that's what the original recipe suggested), which didn't impart the rougher texture that I'd have prefered. Then again, these are so sweet, I'd say the extra sugar could be optional. I made the batch on Sunday, and while they haven't dried out too much in 48 hours, peanut butter always seems to be a dry cookie. That's something that Kin and I do not want in a "best" version.

Interestingly, the miso-peanut butter combination seems to address that problem. (Although in fairness, I ate one soon after it came out of the oven and cooled. Perhaps it'll be drier and crunchier in a few days. The latter is a big no-no for Kin.) I cut the amount of granulated sugar in half from the original recipe, and I didn't roll these in Demerara sugar either. While I like the saltiness and savoriness that the miso imparts, unfortunately, I think it overpowers the peanut butter almost entirely - and this is after letting them sit overnight in the fridge, which the recipe insisted would "mellow" things out. Depending on how the cookies hold up after a couple of days on the counter, I might try this recipe again with more peanut butter (and probably less butter to compensate).

All-in-all, I think we're still on the hunt for a better peanut butter cookie recipe...