Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Source: Family Feedbag - this blog is great!

Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup + 1/3 cup granulated white sugar (divided)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375F.  Combine peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.  In a separate bowl (or in the same one if you're lazy like me), stir together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl and mix well to form the dough.

Place the remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small dish.  Form the dough into balls about the size of ping pong balls using your hands and roll them in sugar before placing them two inches apart on a parchment-lined (or not) cookie sheet.  (The original recipe didn't say anything about slightly flattening the cookies before baking, so I didn't, and my cookies were a little tall in the middle - like they had some sort of surprise baked in.  Not bad, but if you like yours to be flatter, you may consider pressing the dough balls slightly with the bottom of a cup or something.)  Bake for 10 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

Makes about 30 cookies.

Notes:
I really love peanut butter cookies, and I have my tried and true recipe that has become my go-to when I'm in the mood for a peanut buttery treat (even when I don't have reese's pb cups I still make the cookies and they're awesome by themselves).  So I didn't know if I really even wanted to try this new recipe since I wasn't looking for something new in the peanut butter realm.  Well, luckily I did try it, because this recipe has launched up to my new favorite in the pb category.  They are the perfect consistency - a little crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle, and "more substantial" (Gregg's words) than others we've made.  They're salty and sweet.  And they're not greasy at all.  Also, they're super quick to whip together - you don't even need to get the beaters out.  And they're just darn delicious.  I will most definitely be making these tasty morsels again.