Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies (chocolate sandwiching optional, but recommended)

These sandwiches (more or less the same as the ones in this month's Fine Cooking) remind me of inside-out Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. The salty-sweet peanut butter "shell" steals the show. You almost don't need the chocolate filling, but why would you want one regular cookie when you could eat two cookies slathered in butter-infused chocolate (laziness is not a good excuse, trust me - I got a marriage proposal out of these cookies when I brought them to a potluck - they're that good).

Peanut Butter Cookies:

2.5 c. creamy peanut butter (you'll need about a jar and a half - the medium jars)
1.5 c. firmly packed light brown sugar
1 t. baking soda
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla

If you want chocolate sandwich cookies . . .
12 oz package chocolate chips
1 stick butter

Preheat oven to 350. Beat the peanut butter, baking soda, and brown sugar in a medium bowl until well blended. At this point the batter tastes remarkably similar to the center of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (grainy, salty, sweet, mmmm . . . must not eat the batter . . . ) Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until just blended (the mixture will firm up after adding the eggs). Roll 1in. balls and space them on a cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake about 11 min, until cracked and puffed, but still moist looking.

It's basically impossible not to scarf down the entire tray of cookies as they come out of the oven, but if you have a modicum of self control, try to exercise it at this point. While the cookies cool, pop the chocolate chips in the microwave with the stick of butter (microwave safe bowl, obviously) and nuke 'em for a minute. Stir, nuke, stir, nuke, until the chips and butter melt. Stir to combine thoroughly and allow the mixture to cool.

Spread the flat side of a peanut butter cookie with chocolate, and top with another cookie. The resulting sandwiches might be roly-poly. Consider this as a sign of success. Flat sandwich cookies may be more aesthetically pleasing, but they're not nearly as satisfying as their chewy, chubby counterparts. Enjoy peanut buttery goodness whilst fending off ring-wielding men.

Variation: Oatmeal Chocolate-Toffee Peanut Butter Cookies

Nix the filling, increase the egg count to 3, add 2/3 of a cup old fashioned oats, and stir in two coarsely chopped toffee-almond Symphony bars. Bake as directed above.

**Avoid making this variation if you are: a) hungry, b) depressed, c) done with your last law school final that you totally bombed, d) all of the above. Exceptions should be made if you are depressed due to rejection. In that case the cookies will probably be less damaging than tequila.