Peanut Butter Cookies

Cream butter, peanut butter and sugars. Beat the softened butter, peanut butter and both sugars on medium speed for 2 minutes until creamy and a shade lighter, then beat in the egg and vanilla. The peanut butter's own fat and sugar mean the dough comes together smoothly without needing much creaming time.

Add the dry ingredients. Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt on low speed, mixing just until combined.

Chill the dough. Cover and chill for 1 hour. The dough is quite soft straight after mixing, so chilling firms it up enough that the cookies hold their shape instead of spreading thin in the oven.

Heat the oven. During the chilling time, heat the oven to 175°C (155°C fan) for at least 20 minutes before baking.

Shape and flatten. Roll the dough into 35g balls, roll each in caster sugar, and set them 5cm apart on the lined metal trays. Press a fork in a criss-cross pattern to flatten each to about 1.5cm, dipping the fork in sugar first so it doesn't stick.

Bake. Bake one tray at a time for 10-12 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden at the edges but still soft and pale in the centre. They carry on firming up as they cool, so pulling them while the middle still looks soft keeps them from drying out.

Cool on a rack. Cool on the tray for 5 minutes, since they're too fragile to move while hot, then transfer to a wire rack to cool fully.