Mmmmmm.... peanut butter!

That recipe looks odd - the initial ingredients I'm fine with, but what the heck is the point of doing it from scratch if you then turn around and throw in a roll of preprocessed peanut butter cookie dough.

To ensure your eligibility in a contest run by Pillsbury?

I take those types of contest "winners" with a grain of salt. I think you hit on something by mentioning all of the brand-name products. This recipe probably had the highest ratio of brand-name to non-brand-name ingredients. For corporate sponsors, that's a WINNER!

EL, I'm sure your cookies are much better. Care to share the recipes, or are they treasured secrets?

I said "my," but really it's just a matter of opening the Joy or Maida Heatter's book. I just think any made from scratch peanut butter cookie has to taste better than something made from refrigerator dough, but, hey, I'm willing to be convinced otherwise. EL

Feh...big deal. Pretty much any good cookbook has a tasty PB cookie recipe. Generally, I'm too cheap to buy "name brand" products. On the other hand, if my recipe won a lot of money, I'd could be persuaded to use them.

So then, in essence, this is a real peanut butter cookie surrounded by a fake peanut butter cookie and rolled in sweetened peanuts with a touch of cinnamon. Two out of three ain't bad.

You all are misreading the recipe. These aren't at all like Joy of Cooking pb cookies (which I adore); these are more like pb truffles, with a center of hepped-up peanut butter surrounded by crispy cookie dough. I'll be interested to read the comparison in tomorrow's Sun.

Actually, they don't end up tasting that way. It's more like a soft-centered pb cookie, not a truffle. EL

Haven't tried their pb, but Wegman's choc chip walnut cookies are delicious. Anywhere else I can get some good cookies in Baltimore?

For the truly best cookies, drive to Philly. Just a mile down the road past Villanova University, there's Hope's Cookies and they are absolutely scrumptious!
http://www.hopescookies.com/cookies.asp

fresh baked peanutbuter cookies? Lay in some tempered chocolate chips... now ur talkin my language...

I went home last evening and decided to bake some peanut butter cookies. I made my usual recipe, but decided to roll the cookie balls in a chopped peanut, sugar, and nut mixture, as per the winning recipe, rather than just my usual sugar. I really like the touch of cinnamon and the crunchy bits of peanut on the outside.

And, was my hubby happy when he returned home late from work and smelled cookies.

My hat is off to Rosebud who went home on a weeknight and MADE cookies. You are the woman. I cannot even find the energy to make cookies at Christmas. I have resorted to passing off those wonderful Simon's Bakery sugar cookies as my own...lol.

Great cookies can be had at Vaccaro's (any number of locations, but the cafe on the square in Canton is tops for charm). Whole Foods' rugelach are just about as good as homemade, and a lot less trouble. And the prosaic but delicious Au Bon Pain has ridiculously buttery shortbread cookies (plain or with chocolate) as well as chewy and delicious oatmeal cookies.

I totally agree with Josh H. I wish this entire recipe was from scratch. Pillsbury is just trying to sell more of their products. But I'm from Gaithersburg too so... go Carolyn Gurtz with your bad self! :)

I totally agree with Josh H. I wish this entire recipe was from scratch. Pillsbury is just trying to sell more of their products.

But, remember, that's why they have the cook-offs in the first place. They are one big advertisment for their products, so, of course they expect the contestants to use their products to be used. That, in itself, doesn't bother me a bit. I'm not going to make this recipe but I did try the idea of rolling the cookie balls in chopped nuts & cinnamon along with my regular sugar and really liked the result.

As always, YMMV.