Peanut Butter and Concord Grape Sandwich Cookies

After making most of the cookie recipes in Dessert Person, I could easily look at the picture of the Peanut Butter and Concord Grape Sandwich Cookies and feel like I already knew most of the process. However, I looked forward to seeing how these cookies truly compared to the beloved peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I used an organic crunchy peanut butter that was made of roasted peanuts and salt just like Claire suggested (it’s also pretty much the only kind of peanut butter my husband will eat). I tried finding concord grapes, but what a surprise, I couldn’t find any. I was also tired, so I just went with the concord grape jelly we already had in the pantry.

I started by mixing the dry ingredients in a bowl. Then I beat the butter and sugar in the stand mixer until it was light and fluffy. I added crunchy peanut butter and mixed the batter into a creamy blend. After that, in went the eggs, dry ingredients and vanilla. The dough became much thicker after everything was combined.

For the next few steps, I barely had to even look at the directions. I split the dough in half and made two logs, wrapped in parchment paper. I also wrapped them tight in plastic wrap to keep everything in place, then kept them in the fridge for two hours. Once the logs firmed up, I sliced them into cookies about a centimeter thick. As always, I struggled with the logs turning into ovals as I cut the cookies, so I tried to reform them into circles as best as I could before they got too warm. When I had the cookies sliced up, I used a frosting pipe to cut little circles into half of the cookies, which would serve as the tops.

I baked the cookies (one baking sheet had my silicone mat on it) for about 14 minutes. Some of the top cookies didn’t have as big of a hole as I was hoping, but overall, they looked good and smelled like peanut butter. I spread jelly on the bottoms after the cookies cooled and tried to match them with a top of similar size.

I think the Peanut Butter and Concord Grape Sandwich Cookies not only tasted like a mini PB&J sandwich, but they are cute, dainty cookies. If I was having a tea party, I would definitely make these for the kids. They’re also small enough where it’s hard to feel guilty after having one (or two, maybe even three).

I always appreciate Claire’s YouTube videos after making her recipes because it gives me so much more perspective on the experience and the thoughts I had throughout the process. Turns out you can use this recipe in multiple ways:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYZruvJMN_w