BE MY GUEST: Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies by It’s Always Ruetten

Hi there, Homework readers! My name is Julia and I blog at It's Always Ruetten! Thank for having me over! I am really excited to be here today to fill in for a great blogger! It's not everyday that one of my favorite bloggers asks me to step in for them. Thanks, Carolyn for the opportunity to introduce myself to your readers!

 

Over at It's Always Ruetten I blog about DIY projects, handmade cards, my attempts at cooking, and other fun adventures about living in the Southwest!

After checking out my recipe below, I hope you'll hop on over and read more about what I'm all about!

So, onto the reason I'm here today! To share a tasty (seriously, OMG) recipe for Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies! This idea came to me after standing in front of the vending machine at my office, indecisive between the raspberry thumbprint cookies and the peanut butter and cracker sandwiches. All it took was finding an old handwritten recipe of my mom's to kick me into gear!

This is one of the easiest recipes I've ever baked and the cookies are guaranteed to be a hit!

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies

Yield 5 dozen small cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Peanut Butter (I used creamy, but chunky would be good too)

1/2 Cup Softened Margarine

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup Sugar

1 1/4 Cups Flour

1 tsp Vanilla

1 Egg

3/4 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

Jams or Jellies of choice

Directions:

Cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 330° (odd I know, but it's what worked for me) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper;

2. Mix all of the ingredients together (no special trick here -just dump them all in your bowl and start mixing);

3. Once mixed well, chill the dough for about five minutes;

4. After five minutes, roll the dough between your palms into small balls about 3/4" inch in diameter;

5. Place on your baking sheet and place into the oven for 15-20 minutes;

6. Place unused batter in the refrigerator while the first batch is baking;

7. Once the batch is baked, immediately remove from the oven and take them off the baking sheet to cool;

8. Roll the dough balls for the next batch and place in the oven (follow steps 4-6);

9. While your second batch is baking, press the bottom of a measuring spoon* into the top of each cooling cookie being sure to rotate the measuring spoon to make a circle (*gauge which measuring spoon to use on how big your cookies are);

10. Let cookies completely cool;

11. Repeat steps 4-10 until all of the batter is used.

Filling:

1. Place 1/2 cup of jam or jelly into a microwave safe bowl;

2. Microwave for 20 seconds;

3. Remove from the microwave and stir to break up any gloppy areas;

4. Place back into the microwave for another 20 seconds - at this point the jam or jelly should be pour-able;

5. Place cookies next to each other on a cooled cookie sheet;

6. Carefully spoon in the pour-able jam or jelly into each cookie, taking care not to over-pour;

7. Once all cookies on the sheet are filled, place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator to cool - the jam and jelly will become gelatinous again after being in the fridge;

8. Remove from the refrigerator - and that batch is done!

9. Repeat steps 5-8 until all the cookies are filled.

Enjoy!

For my cookies I filled half with strawberry preserves and the other half with raspberry preserves (my favorite). Just a tip - you might check your local dollar store for jam. I have pretty good luck finding high quality varieties there.

If you have any cookies left to store (and they are just that tasty that you might not) store them in an airtight container or on a plate with wax paper and aluminum foil covering them. Surprisingly, mine stayed soft and chewy for almost two weeks!

What flavor will you fill your peanut butter cookies with? Thanks for letting me share my big-kid cookies with you all!

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P.S. Here are a few other things I've shared that you might like:

  

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Thank you so much Julia for sharing these yummy cookies here today. I’m so happy you could help me out while I’m away.

Friends, don’t Julia’s cookies look amazing? I’m a big fan of It’s Always Ruetten and love all her projects. One of the things that always stands out to me is her beautiful card making creativity. Please visit Julia at It’s Always Ruetten for delightful inspiration.

Thank you so much for stopping by.