One of my favorite treats when I was growing up was peanut butter and syrup. My Dad used to make this all the time, and my brother, sister, and I loved it! You just take some peanut butter and then mix in some syrup, honey, or molasses. If you want to make it creamier, you stir in a little butter. It’s wonderful just like that or on bread or crackers.
The cookies I made tonight remind me a lot of peanut butter and syrup. The batter was so good and tasted just like the peanut butter concoction I’ve loved since I was a kid. I could have just eaten the cookie dough and skipped making the cookies altogether. 
I didn’t though.
While my adaptation of the recipe I used was successful in that it produced a cookie which tasted great, it was unsuccessful in terms of aesthetics. Most of the cookies turned out very unattractive. Let’s face it…they were downright ugly. Who wants to make a cookie that looks unappetizing? Certainly not me. I should have stuck to the original recipe, but it’s too late now. 
After I made the first batch, I figured I was making the cookies too big since they looked more like very thin pancakes. I made the second batch smaller and they looked prettier when they were done. But then when I took my spatula to remove them from the cookie sheet, they got all shriveled up and looked ugly. I realized I didn’t let them cool enough before removing them from the cookie sheet.
I did a little better with the third batch because I made them smaller, let them cool a little longer before removing them from the cookie sheet, and I think the chocolate chip I added on top made them look a little more attractive. Here’s a picture, but even my photo of my cookies suck. *sigh*
Looking back, I also realize the cookie dough wasn’t thick enough, and I guess that’s because I used some molasses instead of sugar. I couldn’t roll the cookies into balls so I just dropped spoons of cookies on the sheet. I guess that’s why I ended up with cookies as thin as a potato chip? But If I had stuck to Joy’s recipe, the consistency of my cookie dough would have been perfect. But I had to go and experiment with the molasses. *sigh*
And here’s another mistake I made. I cut her recipe in half because Kemal doesn’t like peanut butter and I would be stuck eating all the cookies I made. But when I cut her recipe in half, I made a boo-boo. I forgot to cut the baking soda in half. Oops!
I guess I’m just going to have to keep practicing making cookies until I get the knack of it. And I probably should also strictly follow all cookie recipes instead of deviating from them. I’m really happy with how the cookies tasted, but they’re too thin and not very pretty.
Just because my cookie tasted good doesn’t mean my recipe was successful. Wouldn’t you agree that when you eat a cookie, you want something to bite into? I know I do. They’re not supposed to be thin like potato chips the way mine turned out. And cookies are supposed to look pretty…or at least not unappetizing.
I strongly urge you to follow her recipe though because my adaptation of her recipe is not going to give you good results.
Flourless Peanut Butter and Molasses Cookies (Get Joy’s recipe by clicking on her name: Joy the Baker)
