Mara's One One One Peanut Butter Cookies

Here's a recipe for quick and simple but outstandingly delightful peanut butter cookies. All you need are three ingredients for cookies that melt in your mouth with flavor.

One egg
One cup of sugar
One cup of peanut butter

Mara never told me how to go about combining these three ingredients or how to bake the cookies and being a guy I was too embarrassed to ask, so I have been experimenting. The last two times I made these cookies I beat the egg first and then mixed in the sugar until they were blended well. No need for an electric mixer. Then I mixed in the peanut butter until the dough had an even texture. Then it's onto greased cookie sheets and into the oven. Simple as that!

The last two times I made these I used different oven temperatures and different cooking times. The first was one single giant cookie baked below 300 degrees oven temperature and the cookie came out a bit undercooked which means it broke easily coming off the cookie sheet but was enormously soft and tasty!
The most recent try I used a 325 degree oven and baked the 16 cookies for 30 minutes. They came out overcooked but not burned. They had quite a crunch once they were cooled down.
So I'm tempted to use a 300 degree oven and bake for 30 minutes next time I make these.
Update: Mara suggests baking at 350 until the bottoms of the cookies begin to get brown (but see my January 2018 update below).

I have tried adding other ingredients to the recipe. Coconut didn't work and neither did cocoa powder. The cookies lost their charm that way. But I have tried chocolate chips and the cookies were still delightfully delicious. They also do well with rolled oats. I used a half cup of rolled oats in my most recent two batches with good results.

Update January 2018:

I seem to have a routine worked out now for making these cookies so I'll share that with my readers.

I now use a cheap hand-held two-blade electric mixer to beat the egg to a foam and then to mix in the sugar until the batter is creamy smooth. Then I mix in the peanut butter using a spoon.

I make from twelve to sixteen cookies rolling each one into a round ball by hand before placing them on the cooking sheet lightly greased with, of all things, wheat germ oil. Then I flatten them with a fork first in one direction and then crossways in the typical peanut butter cookie fashion. This works well for me even when I add chocolate chips to the dough.

I bake in an oven preheated to between 310 and 315 degrees, baking for fifteen minutes, then remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet before attempting to remove them.

Mara told me this recipe came from her grandmother so I want to thank both Mara and her grandmother and I'll bet if you try them yourself, you will too!

These go on the menu for sure.