I've been making peanut butter cookies, but skipping the step of pressing the top of the cookie down with a fork. What does this step do for the cookies?
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1Great question, this is something I have always wondered. If nothing else, it's a convenient way to identify exactly what type of cookie it is.– JJ CaldwellCommented Feb 22, 2011 at 7:00
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6 Answers
Peanut butter cookies don't spread as they cook, so you have to flatten them before hand. This ensures that the middle will cook through before the outside burns.
As for the pattern created, it actually creates slightly more surface area, so you'll get more browning at the extra edges that you create. Think of it like a meringue, or the top of a shepherd's pie -- if it's too smooth, you won't get the little bits of browned crispy bits that you'd get if you rough up the surface.
I believe the main reason is to help the dough spread out. Peanut butter cookies recipes typically don't go for a lot of spread, and therefore you need to manually flatten the dough in order to get a proper cookie shape and allow the cookie to cook properly.
It's not clear to me whether the non-spreading recipe is a requirement for some aspect of the cookie, or if the reason that a non-spreading recipe is used is specifically to allow the fork-marks to remain, so you could experiment with some of the factors mentioned in this thread on cookie spreading if you'd prefer the cookies to spread on their own and skip the fork marks.
I actually just asked my wife about this! It turns out that the dough used for most peanut butter cookies is a little thicker than regular cookie dough. Pressing it can help it to cook more evenly. I don't know how much it helps, but she seemed to think it was pretty important!
answered Feb 22, 2011 at 2:12
The fork lines are so you can tell the difference between the peanut butter ones and the sugar cookies.
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1You know ... I was debating mentioning that part of it ... I mean, it's not like trying to decode what it's a box of assorted chocolates by the swirl on top, but it can be something you can teach to a kid with peanut allergies as a warning sign.– JoeCommented Feb 22, 2011 at 22:35
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2For my purposes, I can see the color difference between sugar and peanut butter cookies. Also, I use chunky peanut butter, so the peanut chunks are often visible.– KatieKCommented Feb 23, 2011 at 0:29
Nothing. It's just cosmetic. I didn't even know I was "supposed" to be doing that until I'd been making them for years.
It's not just there for cooking, it's to make the cookie look like the peanuts shell.