These aren't going to make it to Christmas: Peanut Butter Cookies

My family went to go see a local production of the "The Nutcracker" earlier this week. Just before curtain, my brother's girlfriend leaned over to me and said nonchalantly, "I made the best peanut butter cookies the other day. They only have three ingredients."

I'm always a bit skeptical of any so-called recipe with three ingredients (unless it's a drink recipe) because they usually include canned soup, boxed rice mix, and other non-ingredients (OK - cookie recipes don't usually have those things. Bear with me). I love a good shortcut as much as the next person, but I personally believe that "cooking" and "assembling" are two different things. And since we can't eat anything convenient around here anyway, turning up my nose at recipes full of convenience foods makes me feel as if I'm adhering to high standards instead of stuck in food-restricted cooking hell.

Our attempt at cut-out cookies yesterday was a mixed success. The cookies are delicious, and possibly we'll even get around to frosting them at some point (or not; it's an underachieving kind of day). They are not, however, cut-out cookies; the dough was far too soft and sticky to shape, and there were a lot of hard feelings and a half-empty bottle of wine in the kitchen before all was said and done. This didn't exactly inspire me to head back into the kitchen today.

But THIS recipe - exactly as advertised. It does, in fact, have only 3 ingredients. The recipe comes together in the time it takes the oven to preheat. They are utterly, completely, freakin' DELICIOUS - all full of peanutty goodness, not overly sweet, not dry and crumbly. There is absolutely no way that these are going to make it to the family Christmas parties. In fact, I might hide them before David and Anna get home from the orthodontist and eat them all myself.

Peanut Butter Cookies 

1 cup peanut butter (I used regular Jif, since I didn't want to experiment with our $7/jar natural peanut butter)
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten

optional: melted chocolate and a quart of milk

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine all the ingredients. Roll them into 1-inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet (I smushed them just a little with a spatula; I think this is probably optional). Bake 12 minutes.

Let these cool on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes before you move them to a cooling rack; if you try to take them off right away, they'll fall apart (into hot, delicious, peanut-buttery crumbs of goodness, btw). Let cool for at least 10 minutes before you eat them - seriously, trust me on this. I ate one (OK, three) when it was hot and the center seemed underdone. Once they sat for a few minutes, they were perfect all the way through.

If you're feeling ambitious, unearth your husband's stash of high-end dark chocolate and melt it, then drizzle it over the cookies or dip half the cookie into it. Or do some of both and arrange them decoratively on a plate, then take a picture that you can't figure out how to upload to your blog.

You are really going to want a big glass of milk with these, too.