Recipe #4: Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies, aka “the Nora Ephron”

Recipe #4: Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies, aka “the Nora Ephron”

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My son had his 6-month shots this morning at the doctor so to ease “our” pain I decided today was the day to make the peanut butter sandwich cookies. It’s been about 3 months since I have experienced the joy that comes from eating one of these decadent cookies.  I am excited and scared all at the same time – excited because I will now have these tasty morsels in my home and scared for the exact same reason.

I have never left the Dahlia Bakery without purchasing one of these cookies (and if I had it was an oversight that I later regretted). I would go pick up treats from the bakery any chance I got. If there was a birthday on my team or if I just wanted to surprise my co-workers with a special treat I would go to Dahlia and pick up an assortment of cookies – always making sure to get myself a peanut butter sandwich cookie.  I really had a hard time trying anything else in the bakery because this became my favorite purchase. When I was pregnant these were definitely a regular part of my diet.

Now that I have made these cookies it’s no wonder why they are a few bucks a pop. They take a lot of time to make and since my oven is so small I was only able to cook 6 cookies at a time so it took me half the day to complete the process. It wasn’t until after dinner that I had the pleasure of scooping the peanut butter onto one cookie and smooshing the two cookies together. That was the definitely the best part of making the cookies – that and the fact that I knew it was only a matter of minutes before the moment I had anticipated all day.

I have two of the cookies in front of me… my husband picked one up and said “Oh my god!! Tears of joy!!” so I guess he was impressed. Just took a bite – DANG! These are amazing. The cookies turned out perfectly… just done enough, not too soft or too crunchy, and the peanut butter gooey goodness in the center makes me want a big glass of milk. Success.

Here are my notes on making the cookies. Like I said – they were time consuming so be ready for the commitment. I didn’t have enough Skippy peanut butter so I used Adams Natural Creamy Peanut Butter. It was pretty hard to stir and get the consistency I desired but I managed to make it work and I prefer the taste of Adams to Skippy (I will try Skippy next time though since that is recommended). I didn’t have the 1-ounce ice cream scoop so I used a tablespoon scoop and the cookies turned out pretty uniformed. Some turned out bigger than others so I just paired them up the best I could to make the sandwiches. I did manage to make 48 cookies just as the recipe said. I had some leftover peanut butter filling only because I did not make 3 sandwiches due to overcooking a batch… well that and I ate 3 cookies in the process (hey! I had to taste the goods along the way).

All in all, I am very satisfied with how this recipe turned out. I think I will still enjoy getting one of these cookies from Dahlia because I find that when I cook or bake something it never tastes as good as when someone cooks for me.


For full recipe: See page 130 in the Dahlia Bakery cookbook