This project was a late-night solution to satisfy a major craving for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…. thus, these egg-free vanilla cookies were built, with only 4 ingredients. One row had a dab of peanut butter, another row and a half had raspberry jam, and the last row had a special walnut in the middle, leaving 2 left as solo.

Simple. Lightweight. Perfect balance of warm, moist vanilla, brown sugar with unbleached flour, all aligned well with the richness of peanut butter, the sweetness of jelly, and the simpleness of a beautiful-shaped walnut.

Excellent late-night snack. Brings back warm-hearted memories of my favorite bakery I grew up going to. I remember grabbing a ticket with all sorts of numbers and walking along a long hallway, mesmerizing all the colorful batches of chocolate all over, peanut butter, jelly, and crazy, colored sprinkles on cookies. All these goodies were sitting on oversized, big, yellow “grandma“ trays in these old-school, oversized, curved display windows. I would patiently wait for the bakers to give us kids samples and delicate chocolates, on a piece of parchment paper, so soft as if they handed it to us on a gold platter…

I would then watch “my chosen few” cookie batch bake, rise, and slowly be pulled out of those big heavy duty metal ovens and placed onto cooling racks before hitting the white cardboard box.

It was fascinating for a child to watch how a flat cardboard would magically pop up into a 3 dimensional rectangular box. The guys would wrap up the box with a long string being suspended from a metal wheel hanging from the ceiling. Who would ever understand why string was hanging from a wheel in the ceiling? These good ol’ days are making me hungry!

Enjoy these peanut butter and jelly and walnut cookies, with a warm glass of milk!

Recipe link: Mommy’s Home Cooking