Robby's Baking Therapy

My mom brought these home when I was seven, and they are the cookies that made me want to bake

  The “baking therapy” discussed on this blog refers to my personal experience using baking as a self-help and relaxation tool.”

Hey everybirdy, Robby here. Day 13 of Winterfest Baking, and this is the cookie that started me.

I was seven when my mom first brought a batch of these home. Peanut butter cookies wearing pretzel antlers, with chocolate chip eyes and candy noses, and the way she explained the recipe to me made the whole thing feel like magic. I did not just want to eat them. I wanted to know how they happened. My mom taught me everything I know about baking, and if I had to point at the day the wanting started, it would be these cookies.

Briella baked them in chapter thirteen of her Winterfest in 2019, and she associates them with being a kid at Christmas too. Some cookies are just cookies. These are a doorway, in two different childhoods.

Meet Briella Ponder

Briella’s pick for the day is a peanut butter reindeer cookie, one she ties to Christmas as a child, and she says up front what everybody learns making them: they are fun to make with kids. Her batch makes 3 to 4 dozen.

Her ingredients, as she names them: peanut butter; granulated sugar and brown sugar; shortening, butter, and an egg; flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; and for the faces, pretzels, M&Ms, and chocolate chips.

The sugars, peanut butter, shortening, butter, and egg get blended first, until the base is smooth. Then the dry ingredients are stirred in.

She shapes the dough by the spoonful, about a tablespoon a cookie, and sets them about 2 inches apart on an ungreased sheet.

Then the decorating, which is the whole point of a reindeer cookie: pretzel antlers, chip eyes, candy noses, every face its own.

Into a 375 degree oven for about 9 to 10 minutes, until lightly golden.

Her closing invitation is the right one for this cookie: if you made them, tell her how you decorated yours. Her tags gave her own verdict: she really wanted to make these this year, and they were so cute.

A Robby note: my reblog of her chapter said the rest of my side. These cookies scream Christmas party. My mom always made these cookies for every Christmas party that we had. She was not exaggerating, and neither am I.

What You Will Need

For the cookies:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the faces (no amounts on the card, and that is fine; you need a handful of each):

• Mini pretzel twists, for antlers
• Chocolate chips, for eyes
• M&Ms or Red Hots, for noses

Credit where it is due: the card on this post names Betty Crocker as the original author.

Let’s Get Baking

1. Cream the sugars, peanut butter, shortening, butter, and egg until smooth.
2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in their own bowl.
3. Stir the dry into the wet until a soft dough forms.
4. Chill the dough 2 hours. Do not skip this. The chill firms the fats so the reindeer hold their shape and stay thick and chewy, and it gives you a quiet break in the middle of the bake. Both of those are the point.
5. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
6. Roll the dough into 1 1/4 inch balls and set them 3 inches apart on ungreased sheets.
7. Press the decorations in before baking: two pretzel antlers, two chip eyes, one candy nose per cookie. Press firmly. Faces that go in firm stay on.
8. Bake 9 to 10 minutes, until the edges are light golden.
9. Rest 5 minutes on the pan, then move them to racks.

Questions and Robby

Why chill for a whole 2 hours?
Peanut butter dough is soft and rich. Two hours firms it so the cookies bake thick instead of spreading into puddles, and the faces stay where you put them. It is also a built-in rest for the baker, which counts.

How do I keep the antlers and noses on?
Press them in firmly right after shaping, and bake them in, the way the recipe says. Decorating after baking looks easier and lasts about one car ride.

Briella says 3 to 4 dozen. The card says 30. Who is right?
Both, at different sizes. Briella shaped by the tablespoon; the card rolls 1 1/4 inch balls. Bigger reindeer, fewer reindeer. The costs below are counted on the card’s 30.

What does a batch really cost?
Counted three ways. At Walmart, $2.77 a batch, about $0.09 a cookie, and that includes the decorations, which the sheet counts as honest estimates since the recipe gives no amounts for them (about 2 ounces of pretzels, half an ounce of M&Ms, a small handful of chips). Costco sells no plain mini pretzels, so there is no honest all-Costco batch; a hybrid comes to $2.89. The food bank way, with the peanut butter given, is $2.13.

Your card says $3.40. The sheet says $2.77. Which is right?
Probably both, of different decoration counts. The dough itself costs $1.85. If the card counted a bigger share of the pretzel and candy bags, it would land right where it sits. The rewrite suggests $2.77 with the estimates labeled, so a reader knows exactly what was counted.

Closing

Every Christmas party of my childhood had these cookies, because my mom made them, every time. At seven I thought they were magic. Now I know they are peanut butter, patience, and a two-hour chill, and I still think they are a little bit magic.

Do you have a nostalgic holiday recipe that brings back comforting memories for you? Tell me in the comments. And if you bake a tray of reindeer, you are not alone in the kitchen. You never were.

Bake the real thing: The recipe card is right on this page, and it makes 30 cookies. Counted three ways: $2.77 at Walmart, $2.89 as a Costco and Walmart hybrid batch, $2.13 with gifted peanut butter.

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