Homemade Peanut Cookies

These aren’t your average butter cookies. A spoonful of dissolved coffee goes into the dough, lending a quiet mocha depth that plays off the salty crunch of roasted peanuts pressed into each one.

The base is a classic creamed butter-and-sugar dough, bound with an egg and a little vanilla. Chilling it for an hour is the step that matters most, since cold dough rolls cleanly and holds its cut shape instead of spreading into blobs.

Roll it to a tidy quarter inch, stamp out your shapes, and press a few roasted peanuts into the center of each before they go in the oven.

They bake fast into crisp, golden rounds with a buttery snap, a faint coffee aroma, and that peanut crunch up top.

Chef Tips

• Don’t skip the chill; warm dough sticks to the rolling pin and loses its shape in the heat.
• Dissolve the coffee in just a teaspoon or two of hot water so you don’t add too much liquid to the dough.
• Press the peanuts in firmly so they stay put as the cookies bake and cool.
• Watch them closely, since thin cut-outs slide from golden to over-baked quickly.

Variations

• Use cashews or chopped almonds in place of peanuts.
• Add a pinch of cinnamon or cocoa to lean further into the coffee flavor.
• Drizzle the cooled cookies with melted chocolate for a mocha-nut finish.