Naughty or Nice?

One staple of all American holidays is a version of the peanut butter cookie. I fondly remember nights gearing up to Christmases of my youth as times when my mother would pull out her tried and true baking recipes and make a panoply of goodies from sin fudge to decadent chocolate bars. Our favorites though were her "fork" cookies, called such because of their nicely indented tine marks that created sweet little stripes on the tops of chewy peanut butter treats.

This year, a friend of mine who's a little more health conscious than most, shared a recipe for his own more nutritious version of my favorite peanut butter cookie. After making them, I was surprised at how hearty, sweet and gooey good they were. I think I will make both versions for the holiday dinner table and let my guests decide whether they want to be naughty or nice this year!

NAUGHTY

"Fork" Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup margarine

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs slightly beaten

2 cup flour

1 tsp. soda

1 tsp. vanilla

Pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients well, roll into balls and flatten with fork or fingers dipped in flour. Bake on greased tin.

Bake at 350 for fifteen minutes. Cool and serve.

NICE

Gary Shaw's OPEN-WIDE Peanut Butter Cookies

1 c butter, softened

1 c white sugar

1 c packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

2 t vanilla extract

1 18oz jar peanut butter (organic preferred)

2 1/4 c sifted flour

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 cup chopped peanuts

1/2 c sugar

2 t cinnamon

2 fine dark chocolate <70%> bars (Scharffenberger or Lindt)

2 fine white chocolate bars

In large bowl cream butter and sugars till smooth. Add eggs, yolk and vanilla, beat till fluffy . Stir in whole jar of peanut butter. Sift together the flour, baking soda & salt then stir into the peanut butter mixture. Finally, stir in nuts. Refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours. In separate small bowl, mix cinnamon & sugar together. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheet . Roll dough in hands to the size of a walnut. Then roll dough ball in cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Place on prepared cookie sheet and slightly flatten criss-cross with fork tongs.

Bake for 10 minutes. Careful not to over-brown bottoms. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes then cool further on cookie racks.

When thoroughly cooled, melt your dark chocolate bars in a double boiler till very hot. Fill pastry bag with fine tip and 'zig-zag' over cookie quickly. Repeat with alternate chocolate in opposite direction.

Note: Sometimes white chocolate can be difficult to work with so you might want to use milk-chocolate as a contrast to the dark.