Peanut butter and chocolate cookies

Ingredients

• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 2 cups Original Bisquick mix
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• sugar
• 36 Hershey's Kisses

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In large bowl, stir together condensed milk and peanut butter until very smooth.
3. Add in Bisquick or other baking mix and vanilla. Stir until combined.
4. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and roll into sugar.
5. Place balls sugar side up on ungreased cookie sheets.
6. Bake 8 minutes or until bottoms of cookies start to brown.
7. Remove from oven and immediately press a Hershey's Kiss into the top of each cookie.
8. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

Makes 36 cookies.

Peanut butter history

Peanut butter is one of America's favorite snacks. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is truly an American lunch staple for people of all ages. While peanut butter has been around for more than a century, the exact origins are difficult to pinpoint.

Africans for more than 500 years have eaten soup that contained large amounts of peanuts. China has made peanut-based sauces for hundreds of years. Even in the United States, Americans have long been grinding peanuts and eating the resulting paste. However, it wasn't until the late 1800's that peanut butter as we know it today start appearing.

Peanut butter was first used as a way to supplement protein into the diet of those who didn't (or couldn't) eat meat. To make peanut butter in the late 1800's, a meat grinder was oftentimes used to turn peanuts into paste. This paste, known early on as nut butter, soon started to become more and more popular in the United States.

While he didn't invent peanut butter, George Washington Carver was instrumental in assisting the peanut industry. His findings helped create over 250 uses for the peanut and made it a much more viable product for companies to invest in.

By the early 1900's, peanut butter production had become to swing into high gear. By the 1920's, companies had figured out how to churn peanuts effectively to mimic the consistency of butter — which gave birth to modern day peanut butter. Peter Pan, the popular peanut butter brand name, was introduced in the late 1920's.

Today, Jif is the leading peanut butter distributor in the United States. In fact, Jif has been the leader since 1981. According to Jif, 270 million pounds of their peanut butter is consumed by Americans each year.

Peanut butter nutrition

Peanut butter is good source of protein. And while it is also high in fat, it is monounsaturated fat - a type of fat that has been linked to staving off cardiovascular disease. Everyone should include small amounts of this "good fat" in their diet. Therefore, if you don't go overboard, it's fine to eat peanut butter. Additionally, peanut butter has a healthy amount of vitamin B3 (niacin), folic acid, vitamin E, magnesium, fiber and antioxidants.

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