All of them seem to have that cross fork pattern. This is more tradition I guess, but is there some reason? I read somewhere that it simulates the texture of a peanut shell. I don’t know.
Cuz you squash the dough bals onto the cookie sheet using a fork. First this way…then that way.
Because the makers of peanut butter cookies press a fork on the top of the unbaked cookie twice at 90-degree angles before they put them into the oven.
that’s how they do it. why do that to peanut butter cookies and not others?
Peatnut butter cookie batter doesn’t melt and flatten itself out like (for instance) chocolate chip cookie batter. The cookie needs to be manually flattened before it’s baked.
I imagine it’s because there is less shortening/butter in the dough, making it more cakey and less capable of melting flat.
That is so people who are blind can tell what type of cookie they are.
It’s a thicker dough than most other common types of cookie, and it won’t flatten out by itself like, say, oatmeal cookies. The fork thing is just traditional, though. You could flatten them just as well with a spatula. You might even be able to roll them, although I’ve never tried that.
Perhaps because peanuts have a vaguely similar criss-cross pattern on their shells.
Perhaps because peanuts have a vaguely similar criss-cross pattern on their shells.
I worked in a bakery as a teenager, so that makes me the expert here.
We made the second impression at 45 degrees to form diamond-shaped decorations on the cookies. We used ordinary household forks, too.
Anyway, we did it for tradition. PPlus, doing so makes lots of edges which brown quite prettily and taste good. (Caramelized sugar)
I love being The Man.
The Anthropic principle comes into play here as well. I have made peanut butter cookies without the forky criss-cross, and no one recognizes them as peanut butter cookies! It’s almost as if non-forked peanut butter cookies do not exist in a human populated universe.
Squink and that’s not to mention the evil looks you’ll get for serving non-forked PBCs to the general public who aren’t expecting them. Like Circuis Peanuts, I know of NOBODY who is on the fence about this confection.
The first couple of times, I attempted to press in the pattern immediately after I pulled them out of the oven. This of course did not work one goddamned iota and until this very moment I had not figured out why. I just left 'em bareback after that.
:smack:
Dear, sweet, christ on a pogostick I am an idiot. This is me hanging up my oven mitts for all time. First I can’t figure out how to squish a pattern into peanut butter cookies, then I try to set myself on fire with flame-throwing baked apples.
It might have ocurred to me to squish in the pattern before baking, but I think I assumed they would puff up and obliterate the pattern anyway. Oh well, they’re still damned good cookies.
Mixie, when I read your recipe for the apples, I was thinking, “Wow, she’s impressive. Way over my head ~ What a little Miss Martha Stewart she is.” I can’t bake/cook to save my life but even I KNEW HOW TO DO THIS! LOL
Yeah hun … Maybe you should take a break. You’re putting too much pressure (and fire) on yourself!
Actually, the cross marks on the top of Peanut butter cookies are to keep them from sticking to the roof of your mouth
All I know is the cross marks serve as a simple sign to not eat those cookies, since I’m allergic to peanuts. I wish everything that had peanuts had cross marks on it.
I thought it was just as simple as telling everyone “Hey! Im a Peanut Butter Cookie”. Chocolates tend to follow this rule as well… loops and curls on the top etc.
Ever considered a career in semiotics? You’re a natural, and there’s probably good money in it.
I wonder how many of us after reading this now HAVE to go out and buy a bunch of peanut butter cookies
[MPSIMS] I prefer to put chocolate kisses into my peanut butter cookies, I think that this is sheer Cookie Bliss. For anyone attempting to do the same, you roll the cookie dough into little balls, bake, and THEN insert the kisses. [/MPSIMS]
Another way of flattening cookies is dipping the bottom of a drinking glass into sugar and pressing it into the cookie. I believe this is usually done with sugar cookies.