Holiday Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Cookies

Nostalgia gets an update with these Holiday Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Cookies.  Take a classic peanut butter cookie and add cream cheese to get a lighter, flakier, tastier update on your favourite childhood cookie. Don’t worry, the cream cheese does not take away any of that delicious peanut butter flavour!

In a previous peanut butter cookie recipe, I talked about the fact that peanut butter cookies were not a normal part of my childhood.  Most North American adults, between the ages of thirty and fifty, can easily identify with the familiarity of peanut butter cookies. I’m catching up on what I miss out on with these Holiday Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Cookies!

I am not one of them.  My mom never made peanut butter cookies like other mom’s did.  I’m not sure if the seventies and eighties peanut butter cookie popularity reached Newfoundland or not. I can’t remember other mom’s making peanut butter cookies either.

MY CHILDHOOD WAS ROBBED I TELL YOU!

My fellow Newfoundlander’s, am I wrong?  Is my memory not what it used to be?  Was it just my mom that prevented my childhood from being extra memorable?  Or, am I thinking that peanut butter cookies were popular based on the media that influenced my childhood?  Thanks a lot, 80s sitcoms! It’s all a blur, I tell you!

If it’s my mind playing tricks on me or not, I don’t care.  I’m going to create my own peanut butter cookie memories with these Holiday Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Cookies.  By the way, I just stopped typing this post long enough to question John.e about his childhood and whether or not he ate peanut butter cookies.

Guess what his answer was!?  “Oh, my mom made them all the time!  She would make them with the fork marks on top.”  Now, John.e is not from Newfoundland, but rather rural Ontario.  So, apparently, the peanut butter cookie craze had reached the rural town of Little Britain too!

MORE CHRISTMAS COOKIE RECIPES!

Did you know that I’ve been posting a 24 Cookies of Christmas series for a few years now? There are over 100 Christmas cookie recipes that you can find right here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen! To make it easier to find, I have created a page for each series. Just click on the image below and you’ll find the full series for that volume all one page!

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PEANUT BUTTER AND CREAM CHEESE? YES!

So you see, Dear Reader, I have a lot of catching up to do.  But, in typical Lord Byron fashion, and even though I do love a basic peanut butter cookie, Christmastime demands something more special.  Adding the cream cheese to the recipe makes for a lighter cookie, which is not as crispy and crunchy as a traditional peanut butter cookie, but is soft and chewy.

Because I was making these Holiday Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Cookies as a part of Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas, I decided to add a few candy sprinkles to the top.  I found these cute little red and green Christmas tree candies at a bulk store in St. Jacob’s and couldn’t wait to use them.

I think they look adorable on these peanut butter cookies and help to make the cookies even more festive.  I still have more of the little Christmas tree sprinkles left, so I’m sure they’ll make another appearance in another cookie over the next twenty one days!

HERE IS WHAT YOU WILL NEED FOR THIS RECIPE:

DRY INGREDIENTS

• Flour – No need for anything special. Just use regular all-purpose flour. I have not tried this recipe with any other type of flour.
• Baking Powder – This is used to increase the volume of the batter and to add texture as well.
• Baking Soda – Commonly known as sodium bicarbonate, or just bicarb, it is a baking ingredient that’s activated by a liquid and an acid to help with leavening or rising.  In most cases, you will see baking soda in recipes with lemon juice or buttermilk, but that’s not always the case.
• Salt – This is a common ingredient in baking and cooking.  In baking it helps to enhance and balance sweetness. 
• Sugar – Sugar will caramelize when baked, which will help to brown cookies and cakes.  In cookies, the sugar will help the dough to spread, and will create a crispness to the bottom of the cookie.
• Brown Sugar – First of all, it has way more flavour than regular sugar! And, in this recipe, brown sugar helps to keep the cookie moist and soft.
• Peanuts – Roasted peanuts have the best flavour.  If you need chopped peanuts, but whole peanuts and chop them yourself.  You’ll get a better consistency and a fresher peanut flavour.  Unless otherwise stated, always us unsalted peanuts in recipes.
• Sprinkles – I could write a book on sprinkles!  I love them and I love using them.  Pick sprinkles that are festive, fun, and appealing to you.  Themed sprinkles are a great way to make an occasion pop!

WET INGREDIENTS

• Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature! To be perfectly honest, I have made these with both salted and unsalted butter and there’s no difference in taste or appearance once all is said and done. Use what you have on hand.
• Cream Cheese – When baking with cream cheese it is always best to use brick style rather than whipped or cream cheese in a tub.  The brick style is firmer and more condensed.  Cream cheese adds texture and flavour to baked items.
• Egg – One large egg is all you need. Whenever you set out to bake, make sure your eggs are at room temperature too – just like your butter!
• Vanilla Extract – Probably the most common extract and the most common flavouring used in cakes and cookies.  You can substitute vanilla extract for other flavoured extracts in most recipes if you don’t care for vanilla flavour.
• Peanut Butter – A paste or spread made from ground, dry-roasted peanuts, along with sugar and other additives.  When baking, I always use regular peanut butter, not the expensive natural peanut butters or nut butters. 

EVERYTHING CHRISTMAS!

If you’ve been around the block here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen, you might have already found my annual Christmas posts.  If not, scroll to the top of this page and click on the Christmas tab.  Every year for the past four years, I have posted my annual Christmas blog post.

If you read through them, you will probably come to the conclusion that I absolutely love Christmas.  At the end of the Christmas season last year, I shared with both John.e and McKenna that I wanted to change the theme of the main Christmas tree for this upcoming season.  They probably rolled their eyes, but they usually give in to my need to change things regularly and often.

The new theme was to be homemade.  Meaning, that everything on the tree must be homemade.  I knew I needed about 200+ ornaments, so I assigned homemade ornament duty to McKenna and John.e in August.  McKenna obliged and starting working on some clothespin ornaments.  But, John.e, he fully embraced the challenge!

MORE CHRISTMAS CONFECTIONS!

In some cases, we want more than a cookie. That’s why I have two more Christmas-themed collections you might want to consider. The first, is my 12 Bundt Cakes of Christmas, and the second is my 12 Biscotti of Christmas. Click on the image below to see each collection all on one page with links to each recipe!

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JOHN.E CARVED A RED TRUCK ORNAMENT!

He broke out his carving tools.  He busted out the wood lathe I got him for his birthday. And, he made this ornament.  I’m obsessed with the red farm truck theme!

Notice the Lord Byron’s Kitchen crown painted on the side?  Oh, and that tree, it was made by the wood lathe and it’s actually all one piece.  He even painted it red!  He’a keeper, isn’t he???

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