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Peanut butter cookies are a crowd-pleaser for peanut butter lovers, so you may want to add in as much of the spread you love as possible. Peanut butter adds a lot of value to baked goods — it provides a salty, nutty flavor, a light golden color, and a nice dose of sweetness from the sugar. It also doesn't skimp on the fat content. A 100-gram serving has a whopping 51.4 grams of fat, which can helpcreate chewiness and can makepeanut butter a more nutritious substitute for butter in baked goods.
It's easy to assume that you should pack your recipe full of as much of the spread as possible to create peak flavor and chewiness, but nailing down the ratio of peanut butter to the other ingredients is crucial for your cookies to come out with the right consistency. A 100-gram serving of smooth, salt-free peanut butter has 3.56 grams of starch. This may not sound like a lot, but it is enough that it can affect the quality of your cookies –adding too much peanut butter can make them dry, hard, and crumbly.
Too much peanut butter leads to dry cookies
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The protein in peanut butter may also be to blame — it typically adds structure to baked goods but can also retain water, leading to a dry consistency. If you want to nail the perfect ratio of ingredients for maximum peanut flavor but a soft cookie texture, try using no more than 1cup of peanut butter for every 1 1/2 cups of flour and 1/4 cup of butter. You'll get an ideal balance of saturated fat, unsaturated fat, and gluten.
Depending on what type of peanut butter you use, you may need to add an extra step to ensure it goes in your dough with the proper texture. Natural peanut butter is completely fine to bake with, but it's crucial to stir it first.If you toss it in while the liquid and solids are still separated, your cookies may turn out too oily or too dry.Also, go for a completely creamy spread. While there is a time and place for chunky peanut butter, it may not be the best choice in peanut butter cookiessince it can add too much crunch. But whether you opt for natural or regular peanut butter, make sure to use a light hand when including it in your cookie dough.
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