Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies

Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies

In May 1942, rationing began and sugar was one of the first on the list.  The  U.S. Office of Price Administration (OPA) offered many suggestions to s-t-r-e-t-c-h sugar, so you can have your cake and eat it too, so to speak. The use of molasses, corn syrup, brown sugar, maple syrup, and saccharine were just a few of the replacements, as well as pre-sweetened items, like jam and fruit cocktail juice.  Other rationed items were white flour, eggs, and fat.  The OPA recommended whole wheat flour and other grains to replace white flour, and to use less fats and replace them with other fats like rendered fats, margarine and peanut butter.  Anyone can see why Peanut Butter Cookies were a popular cookie during WWII! 

These Peanut Butter Cookies use all the recommended replacements, and less of the rationed ingredients. These cookies, unlike the traditional Peanut Butter Cookies  are crisper and more tender.  I added the Crunchy Peanut Butter, as opposed to creamy, because it gives them a little more pizzazz.  They disappear fast in my home, practically right from the oven!

Ingredients:

1/4 C Shortening	1/2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 C Butter/Margarine	3/4 C All Purpose Flour
1/2 C Crunchy Peanut	1/2  t   Baking Powder
1/2 C Sugar	3/4  t  Baking Soda
1/2 C Brown Sugar (can use all Brown Sugar, if you prefer) 1 Egg	1/4  t  Salt

Method: Pre-heat oven to 375°F. In a bowl, cream sugars, fats, egg and peanut butter until creamy and well combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together flours and leavening. Add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and mix until well combined.  Chill the dough in the fridge for about 30 min. Lightly grease two cookie sheets or line with parchment.  Remove dough from the fridge and roll a tsp at a time into balls and place on the cookie sheet about an inch apart. Using a fork and a glass of water, dip the fork in the water, shake of the excess, and make criss cross marks on the cookies. (Normally, the cross marks would be made by dipping the fork in sugar first, but during WWII, that would've been considered wasteful.) Bake 8-10 minutes until golden. Cool on a rack for 5 min. Enjoy!