Cookies at Fair Time

Fair week has just ended, and while I didn't do any baking to enter in the competitions, I did bake cookies for the Cattlewomen's hospitality table at the 4-H Livestock Sale. Baking cookies this time of the year reminds me on many 4-H cooking classes and questions I encountered while working. Baking cookies is often the first experience of a new cook as a child learns to bake. As we help children learn this skill, remember that we are teaching life skills and traditions, as well as math, science, and nutrition. Hard to believe all that happens in the kitchen! 
Cookies are a great early project, not only because they are easy and quickly done, but they are also a personal, bite-size bit of comfort food - who doesn't enjoy a cookie and a glass of milk? 
Here's a peanut-butter chocolate chip recipe that goes great with that glass of milk, maybe even followed with a mid-afternoon nap! Doesn't that sound comforting on a hot afternoon?

Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies  
Ingredients:
2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 cup peanut butter
2 eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

In a bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter and mix.  Add egg and vanilla extract and mix well.
Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and add to dough with mixer on low speed until mixed. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate dough for a few hours or overnight (this helps keep the dough from spreading out too much). Preheat oven to 325 degrees and cover baking sheets with parchment paper. Place rounded mounds of dough (about 2 Tablespoons each) on the baking sheets. Bake 15 minutes. Remove when slightly under-baked and let cool on the baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack. Makes about 6 dozen.
(enough to share a few dozen and enjoy the rest)