Arachibutyrophobia

No, I'm not posting about spiders. Those of you who know me well know that my motto is, "There is nothing to fear but fear itself. And spiders." Go read the title again, carefully.

Know what that is?

It's the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth.

I decided to make some peanut butter cookies yesterday. I thought I'd change things up a bit, and pulled out Alton Brown's "I'm Just Here For More Food" cookbook, his baking book. Alton Brown is the host of the Food Network show "Good Eats," which I love. (If you're not familiar with the show, he also did a stint recently in ads for Welch's grape juice, where he butchered the pronunciation of the grapes used to make said juice. Alton, if you're reading this: Concord is pronounced "CON-kerd," not "con-CORD.")

I followed his recipe to the letter, even weighing the ingredients as he suggested. Alton apparently likes his peanut butter cookies a little...um...dry. The recipe makes a TON of dough, and they're nice and peanut buttery, but biting into one is a bit like taking a bite of sand. If you're into that, I'll send you the recipe. I, however, am not a fan. I didn't even bake all of the cookies - I tossed out half of the dough. I NEVER do that.

I now have some butter softening to make a batch out of my cooking bible. I laughed when I read the recipe, which specifically notes that "some peanut butter cookies are dry and sandy" - you don't say! - but that their recipe is crisp at the edges, chewy in the middle. We'll have a comparison in a little bit.