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I was a precocious child, learning to read at a very young age, and I’ve been a voracious reader ever since. I can remember one summer when my mom actually grounded me from my books and forced me outside to play with the neighborhood children. Can you imagine such a thing?
I’ve always found it easy to get lost in a good book, but I’ve never been much for writing reviews. So when Walmart asked if I’d be interested in reviewing the latest book in Debbie Macomber’s Rose Harbor series, Rose Harbor in Bloom, I was a little hesitant, but ultimately I agreed to do it — and I’m so glad that I did.
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Rose Harbor in Bloom is the second book in the Rose Harbor series which revolves around Jo Marie Rose, a widower who lost her husband to a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. After her husband’s death, she purchases a quaint bed and breakfast in Cedar Cove, a small town near Seattle, Washington, which she renames the Rose Harbor Inn after her late husband.
Though most of her family and friends advise against her decision, it turns out that Jo Marie is a natural host, always anticipating her guests’ needs and going out of her way to make them feel comfortable and at home in her establishment.
Hospitality is a strong theme throughout the books, as is good food as a means of developing relationships with others, which I could definitely relate to, and it was very enjoyable to watch her form friendships with other locals over coffee or tea and her home-baked treats (like homemade peanut butter cookies).
Rose Harbor Inn seems to attract troubled guests. In Rose Harbor in Bloom, the story revolves around Mary Smith, the Shivers, and Annie Newton, who each have their own set of issues to work through. It seems as though the inn is a place of healing, both for Jo Marie’s guests and ultimately for herself, and I found myself emotionally invested in all of these mini story lines, enjoying seeing how they developed throughout the book and their ultimate resolutions.
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Though Jo Marie is still healing herself, we see a deepening of the relationship she has with Mark Taylor, the gruff and rough-around-the-edges handyman that Jo Marie hired in the first book, The Inn at Rose Harbor. Mark is definitely very intriguing, and I’m looking forward to seeing how their relationship evolves in future books.
Overall, I found Rose Harbor in Bloom to be a delightful and mostly light-hearted read that left me wanting to know more about these characters. I’m such a sap since having kids, but I alternated laughing and crying through the entire book, and I’d definitely recommend checking it out.
Homemade peanut butter cookies are a favorite of both Jo Marie and Mark, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to share my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe with you! These have a light texture with a bit of crunch, thanks to my special ingredients — honey and extra crunchy peanut butter.
Homemade Peanut Butter Cookies
Yield: 2 dozen cookies
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 9 minutes
Total Time: 29 minutes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
- 1 cup extra crunchy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
- With an electric stand or hand mixer, beat together softened butter and peanut butter on medium to high speed until well combined, about 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar and honey and beat again on medium to high speed until combined. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Stir the flour mixture into the peanut butter mixture on low.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and place the dough in the refrigerator to chill while the oven preheats.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, shape the dough into 1.5" balls and place on a parchment or Silpat-lined cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 9 minutes, until outer edges are just starting to brown. Let cool on the cookie sheet for about 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Have you tried this recipe?
Leave a comment below and share a photo on Instagram. Tag it @unsophisticook and hashtag it #unsophisticook!
If you’re interested in picking up Rose Harbor in Bloom, it will be released on Tuesday, August 13th. Walmart will be offering it at 40% off the publisher’s list price — pick it up in stores or online for just $15.60!
By the way, have you ever wondered: can you freeze cookie dough? The answer is YES, and you just might find that freezing cookie dough makes your cookies taste EVEN BETTER!
FAQs
Your other source of fat should be butter, not shortening. Butter will make your cookies taste buttery; shortening will make them taste suspiciously vacant, like Katy Perry's voice post-autotune. Yes, shortening yields chewier cookies than butter does, because butter contains water and shortening doesn't.
Why are peanut butter cookies pressed with a fork? ›
These early recipes do not explain why the advice is given to use a fork, though. The reason is that peanut butter cookie dough is dense, and unpressed, each cookie will not cook evenly. Using a fork to press the dough is a convenience of tool; bakers can also use a cookie shovel (spatula).
What ingredient makes a cookie chewy? ›
Cornstarch gives the cookies that ultra soft consistency we all love. Plus, it helps keep the cookies beautifully thick. We use the same trick when making shortbread cookies. Egg yolk: Another way to promise a super chewy chocolate chip cookie is to use an extra egg yolk.
Why are my peanut butter cookies always hard? ›
If your peanut butter cookies are hard, you likely cooked them for too long. They should not be baked for more than 8 or 9 minutes.
Why are my peanut butter cookies so sticky? ›
Too Much Liquid
If there is too much liquid in the dough for the flour to absorb, the result will be a soft and sticky dough. Fluids refer to water or milk used in the recipe, as well as liquid sweeteners, flavorings and eggs or egg substitutes.
What happens if you add too much peanut butter to peanut butter cookies? ›
This may not sound like a lot, but it is enough that it can affect the quality of your cookies – adding too much peanut butter can make them dry, hard, and crumbly.
Why do you put criss-cross on peanut butter cookies? ›
So it looks like that there are utilitarian reasons for the cross-hatching—to allow for even cooking—but it might have been passed along for nearly a hundred years for primarily aesthetic reasons, where the cross-hatching is more to identify the cookies as peanut butter ones, rather than to cook them well.
What happens if you don't criss cross peanut butter cookies? ›
The fork marks also encourage the cookies to bake more evenly and brown evenly. If we skipped that step, these cookies would be so thick that they'd barely spread, and they may not bake all the way through.
How do you keep peanut butter cookie dough from sticking to your hands? ›
Mixing the ingredients by hand will take a little elbow grease, but it's manageable. This "dough" is a bit sticky, but grease your hands with some cooking spray to keep your "dough" from sticking to your hands. Once the cookies are ready to bake, you won't have tot wait long to enjoy them.
What is the secret to making cookies soft and chewy? ›
How To Make Cookies Chewy Without Cornstarch
- Go heavy on brown sugar. It has more moisture than its granulated counterpart, which means the cookie comes out less crispy. ...
- Choose margarine or shortening instead of butter. ...
- Use baking powder instead of baking soda. ...
- Rest your dough. ...
- Shorten baking time.
Double Your Yolks Most cookie recipes call for at least one egg. You can try omitting the white of each egg, which tends to dry out when baked, and replacing it with an additional yolk. Plus, egg yolks have more fat than egg whites, which helps to keep your cookies moist and chewy.
What is the secret ingredient to keep cookies soft? ›
Light corn syrup is another ingredient that you can add to cookie dough that will help it stay softer longer. The corn syrup you buy at the grocery store is not the high-fructose corn syrup that soft drinks are made with; it's a sugar that is liquid at room temperature and helps other sugars say liquid at high heat.
Why do my peanut butter cookies not taste like peanut butter? ›
The most common mistake with peanut butter cookies is using the wrong type of peanut butter. The BEST peanut butter for today's cookies is a processed creamy peanut butter, preferably Jif or Skippy.
How do you moisten peanut butter cookie dough? ›
Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.
How to tell when peanut butter cookies are done in the oven? ›
Unlike many other cookies, peanut butter biscuits only fully harden once they've been removed from the oven. Here's how to tell when peanut butter cookies are done: The tops of the cookies are a uniform light brown. They're soft to the touch but not moist or mushy.
Why does my peanut butter taste funny? ›
A jar of nut butter with low oxidative stability will begin to taste rancid, bitter, or pungent as time goes on. According to a study on the quality of stabilizer-free natural peanut butter during storage, natural PB kept at 10°C (50°F) began demonstrating loss in oxidative stability after just 12 weeks.
Why did my cookies taste weird? ›
The ingredients you used could be the culprit – using different sugars, melted butter, baking powder or baking soda can alter a cookie's texture and taste.
How to make peanut butter cookie mix taste better? ›
Peanut Butter Cookie Mix Hacks
Flavor Twist: After creating the dough according to the peanut butter cookie mix instructions, portion the dough into balls then roll in a tasty topping like poppy seeds, sesame seeds or sprinkles, or go for a 4:1 ratio of sugar and dry spice, like ground cinnamon or nutmeg.
Why are my peanut butter cookies gritty? ›
The oils in natural peanut butter tend to separate, causing cookies to spread and take on a gritty texture.
