Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies

Sourdough is a healthier option than processed bread. I studied up on the benefits and here are a few excerpts I found that I wanted to share.  

“Prebiotics are a type of indigestible fiber that keep your gut healthy by feeding the good bacteria, called probiotics, that live there. The presence of prebiotics in sourdough is thought to make it easier to digest than many other breads and the presence of probiotic cultures have shown to increase vitamin and mineral absorption. The probiotics themselves don’t survive the baking process, but the lactic acid bacteria produced during fermentation remains and provides the benefits. The presence of lactic acid bacteria in sourdough has shown to also contain antioxidant benefits, safeguarding your body against illness.” – CookingLight.com 

“Sourdough is a great source of several minerals such as iron and selenium. Iron is an essential part of red blood cell production and energy metabolism, and selenium helps protect our immune system, cells, and tissue. Sourdough is also a great source of many B vitamins, which assist in proper nervous system function and help regulate our metabolisms.”- CookingLight.com

There are many other reasons to love a good homemade starter of sourdough but that’s a post for another day. Today we are looking at peanut butter cookies made with sourdough starter. The taste of these peanut butter cookies has a good rich peanut butter taste with an extra tastebud pleasure of the sourdough flavor. This also keeps it from tasting overly sweet and making you feel guilty for eating cookies. They really do complement each other. Also cooking it with the sourdough starter is a great way to utilize your starter discard.

I will admit this is not my recipe 100% but most days a recipe is not just one persons. We all take a recipe and do some form of modification of it. It is like art no one person is the only artist to paint a forest, there are many different versions and visions of them. I found this recipe from www.homemadefoodjunkie.com 

I took their great recipe and did some modifications to my taste. I was super happy with my results and the taste. So to keep from doing too much rambling before the recipe, let’s begin.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup sourdough starter
• 1 cup peanut butter smooth or 1 1/2 cup of crunchy peanut butter if you want a little crunchy texture (I prefer Jif brand peanut butter)
• 1/2 cup softened salted butter (I prefer Kerrygold butter)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour (I prefer King Arthur Flour)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl or mixer: Mix together the following: peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and softened butter.

Slowly mix in sourdough starter and eggs. Mix slowly until combined don’t over mix but just mix softly.

In a smaller mixing bowl sift together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Next, slowly add your dry ingredient bowl contents into the peanut butter mix. Do this by adding it in by thirds, mixing after each addition. Doing this makes it easier for mixing and creating a more smooth texture.

I use a bakers 1″ scoop to scoop out my cookie dough or you can roll the dough into one inch balls by hand. My scoop is from The Pampered Chef.

Place each ball 2 to 3 inches apart on your lined baking sheet. I prefer to do all my baking on a seasoned stoneware pan from The Pampered Chef. I feel that this keeps it from sticking plus it cuts some time off of baking. Make sure to give the dough balls room to expand. 

Take a fork and slightly wet it. Then dip the fork in sugar and then gently press the fork into the dough balls and crisscross the dough balls to create the signature peanut butter cookie markings.

Bake 11 to 14 minutes depending on if you are cooking on a regular cookie sheet or a stoneware pan. Bake until the cookies are LIGHTLY browned. Remove and place on a cooling rack lined with parchment paper. 

I hope you enjoy!!