Peanut Butter Cookies for my Dad
A couple of weeks ago, I lost my dad.
This was neither sudden nor unexpected. My dad had just turned 93, and there had been many times in the last couple of years we thought might lose him. Over the last five years or so, his body started to deteriorate, to the point where we had to put him into a care home, about 2 1/2 years ago.
In many ways it was a relief. We no longer had to worry about him falling or not eating properly or his meds. It opened up the opportunity for us to just hang with him and spend time just being together. So for the last 2 1/2 years or so, about once a week, I’d jump in my car and drive to White Rock to visit him, and I’d usually pick up a Tim Horton’s coffee along the way, because that’s what he loved. Often I’d also bring him some homemade cookies, or some fruit (he was partial to grapes and mandarins).
It’s difficult for me to express how hard it has been to watch him decline. It often felt unbearable. Heavy. And there were many, many times I drove home in tears, so much sorrow and grief for the loss of the dad I remembered so well–the dad that always took care of me. And now I was taking care of him.
He was tired. He was really done with his life, but we had to wait. On one hand, I wanted him to be out of pain, not struggling anymore. I knew that there would be a great deal of relief in that. On the other hand, in order for that to happen, my dad had to die, and even though I knew that day was inevitable, I still didn’t want it to come.
My dad died on November 10, 2024, aged 93 years and one month. Here’s his obituary.
A couple nights later, I turned to my kitchen, as I always do when I need comfort and to process. I pulled down my mom’s old green recipe box and riffled through till I found my dad’s favourite recipe: Peanut Butter Cookies. I don’t know where my mom got this recipe, it’s probably from the back of a package somewhere, but here it is, and these cookies are pretty perfect. My dad made these many times, he’d bring them to my nephew’s hockey practice and pass them around, he’d bring them to me when he came to visit.
So, here are Peanut Butter Cookies for my Dad.
Peanut Butter Cookies
Equipment
- Stand mixer or hand mixer
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter or vegan butter softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl (or if using a stand mixer, in that bowl), place the butter and the two sugars. Beat well for about 3 minutes, until lighter in colour and soft and fluffy
- Crack the eggs and add them, and beat for about another minute. Add the vanilla and beat to combine.
- Add the peanut butter and beat until incorporated.
- Add the dry ingredients, and start slowly beating them in (be careful because the flour will fly if you start too high). Once everything is incorporated, stop beating and remove the bowl.
- Scoop the cookies out into balls and use a fork to create a crosshatch pattern on the top.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 10-12 minutes, until the edges are brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an air tight container at room temperature for up to a week, or freeze for up to 3 months.