i'd rather be baking

Let’s say you’ve been a casual runner for years, and decide it’s time to get competitive.

Let’s say you happily start training for a series of races, and all is well for about a month, and then you twist your ankle.

Let’s say your job puts you on your feet about 99.99% of the workday, which pretty much exhausts the amount of time you should really be stressing that ankle, limiting home-baking time to pretty much zero. Let’s say you need to squeeze things like boiling corn for dinner and chopping zillions of tiny vegetables for lunch into your limited kitchen time. Just go with me here.

If by some ugly, Twilight Zone-y twist of fate you too find yourself in any (or all) of the above situations, please let me know so that I can give you a hug. And at least you have a good cookie recipe now.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies
Joy the Baker

Makes about 32 small cookies or 16 medium ones

Yes, I made these while boiling corn and chopping little green things en masse. And the entire timeframe for these three tasks was an hour. These cookies are fast.  That being said, they also set a record in our household / Ryan’s office in that the entire batch was devoured in an afternoon. I wasn’t surprised.

1 cup all-natural chunky or smooth peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
about 1/4 cup any fruit preserves you fancy

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a baking sheet with butter and set aside. In a mixer combine peanut butter and sugars until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add egg and baking soda and mix for another 2 minutes. The dough will be crumbly. Roll into teaspoon sized balls and make a small indentation in the center of the dough ball with your pointer finger. Fill the depression with fruit preserves (I used a 1/2-tsp measuring spoon, about half-full for this job). Bake for 12 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on a baking sheet for two minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

High-Altitude Notes: Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375°F.