How to make your teenagers happy, in three easy steps

1. Bake peanut butter cookies.

2. Don’t be overly fond of peanut butter yourself, so you’re not muscling in on their supply.

3. Don’t tell their father you’ve made cookies, so he isn’t muscling in on their supply.

If I had known making teenagers happy was this easy, I would have tried this recipe years ago.

It’s useful to know that a plate of peanut butter cookies can make your kitchen contractor happy, too.  If you find something that delights both your kids and the guy who is redoing your kitchen, then you've found the secret of life.

Work fueled by peanut butter cookies.

 Here’s the secret to your teenagers’ – and contractors’ – hearts.

Peanut Butter Crisscrosses
(from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan)

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

pinch of nutmeg (I omitted this, as nutmeg makes one of my teenagers unhappy)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

¾ cup sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ cups chopped peanuts

about ½ cup sugar, for rolling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. 

In a separate bowl, beat the butter on medium speed for a minute or two.  Add the peanut butter and beat for another minute.  Add sugar and brown sugar, beating for two more minutes, then add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.  Add the dry ingredients, mixing only until just combined.  Mix in the chopped peanuts.

Pour the half cup of sugar into a small bowl.  Working with a level tablespoonful of dough for each cookie, roll the dough into balls and drop them into the sugar.  Roll to coat them in sugar, then place on baking sheets, leaving two inches between them.  Dip the tines of a fork in sugar and press the tines against each ball, first in one direction and then perpendicular, to leave a crisscross shape.

Bake for about twelve minutes.  Let them sit on the sheets for a minute before transferring them to cooling racks.