Thomas and I are going to a cookie swap party this week, so tonight we attempted to make some cookies. I really wanted to make some Peanut Butter Blossoms like my Aunt Mary makes and tried this recipe. As you can see in the photo, our cookies made it only to the trash can.
I think the problem was that organic peanut butter doesn’t have enough sugar. Thomas thinks the flour or baking soda made them too puffy. We tried a couple of times with some different variations, but needless to say, we’ll be trying another recipe tomorrow night. I think I’ll also add a dry ingredients measuring cup to my wishlist.
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Oh no! I hate when that happens! I did a cookie swap before we left the states and had a similar disaster. I eventually ended up going and buying a bag of sugar and a bunch of puff pastry and making palmiers. They went down such a hit and everyone asked for the recipe. I just wondered why I hadn’t thought of that before! ;-) Best of luck!
Try the peanut butter blossoms recipe from Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk. They’re yummy ;o)
Alton Brown did a great episode on the chemistry of cookies. He explains what to add and take away to get different qualities like thin, puffy or chewy.
Looks like the episode is not being shown for awhile, but I’m sure you can find it on your friendly neighborhood Swedish torrent site by searching for “Good Eats S03E6â€.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ea/episode/0,1976,FOOD_9956_17114,00.html
even better, just found the transcript to the show
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season3/Cookie/CookieTranscript.htm
Thin & Crisp
add soda. Raises set point allowing for flatter cookie
replace 1 egg with milk. Eggs get puffy
high ratio white:brown sugar. Brown sugar makes a cookie softer
use butter. It spreads prior to setting
Soft
cake flour. Absorbs less water, allowing it to puff
baking powder. Powder instead of soda creates a more acidic batter, puffing more.
use shortening. Does not spread as much prior to setting
Chewy
melt butter. Water from butter makes gluten with flour.
bread flour. Has more gluten, which is chewy.
I would say, use shortening to retain the shape, but replace one egg from the recipe with milk, Use White Sugar instead of brown. Make sure you use APF, and not Cake or Bread Flour.