June 12th is National Peanut Butter Cookie Day

Is there anything better than a fresh-out-of-the-oven peanut butter cookie? It's gooey but crisp, nutty but smooth, and savory but sweet. How could you ever beat that combination of textures and flavors? With National Peanut Butter Cookie Day coming up, we figured you might want to know a little bit about these delightful treats and try a couple of recipes. Below, we share a little bit about the history and anatomy of a peanut butter cookie and offer some of our favorite recipes so you can savor National Peanut Butter Cookie Day the right way.

The Peanut Butter Cookie

The peanut butter cookie was invented in the early 1910’s by George Washington Carver. The concept is known to be first introduced when Carver published and released a peanut cookbook called How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption. This cookbook was designed to promote peanut growth, as he found many promising benefits associated with these legumes, including soil enrichment, cost efficiency, a wide range of “food values” or nutrients, ease of planting and harvesting, high oil yields and more.

Early peanut butter cookies were rolled very thin and cut into different desired shapes. Sometimes, they were rolled into balls as well. But if you’re a peanut butter cookie fanatic by any stretch of the imagination, you’re familiar with the crisscross indentations on the cookies created with a fork. This instruction was first introduced in a recipe in the Schenectady Gazette in 1932. Shortly thereafter, Pillsbury also condoned the use of a fork in one of their recipes. But why?

Peanut butter cookie dough has a tendency to turn out very dense, which often leads to the cookies not flattening out during the baking process. This can result in the cookies not baking evenly throughout the batch. But, by pressing the dough down with a fork, bakers can create uniform, flat peanut butter cookies that are more likely to cook evenly. However you decide to cook your delicious peanut butter cookies, enjoy, and have a happy National Peanut Butter Cookie Day!

Hampton Farms has been delivering the freshest, best quality peanuts from seed to shelf since 1917. Our business is family owned and operated, and we are committed to producing the finest nut-based snacks and services with integrity, honesty and the pride of American farmers. If you’re looking for a heart-healthy, nutritious snack to make peanut butter cookies, order nuts and nut butters from Hampton Farms today!