Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookie Sandwiches

Today is my nephew Aidan's birthday.  He turns 9.  And while it may seem obvious that children tend to enjoy peanut butter and jelly, this child has an addiction to the sandwich that cannot be satiated.  He will go to town on a PB&J.  And he's something of a jelly/jam/preserves connoisseur.  No lie, he'll take an orange marmalade over regular grape jelly anytime.  And other flavors one would think more refined for a 9 year old palate.  He takes this kid food to the next level.  So of course his birthday baking--sandwich themed this year with Abi's Cake Batter Sandwich Cookies and Elyse's Homemade Oreos--had to be a twist of turning his favorite sandwich into a sweet treat.  Soft peanut butter cookies smooshed together with peanut butter frosting and raspberry preserves sounded like the perfect cookie for this kid.  The preserves cut the peanut butter flavor so it's not overwhelming and the sweet frosting lets you know this is more than just a sandwich or a cookie.  It's a treat fitting of the birthday boy.

Peanut Butter Crunch Cookies

I'm so excited for this post!  Today is my first post for the Secret Recipe Club (SRC)!  If you haven't heard about it, you can learn everything you need to know here, but basically each Monday a group of bloggers post a recipe they've made from another blogger's repertoire, but nobody knows who's featuring their blog until that morning, hence a secret club!  It's a fabulous opportunity to check out new bloggers and force yourself to try new things.  I hope you'll take a look at some of the other bloggers in my group by checking out the blog hop at the bottom of this post.

I had the privilege of baking from Andi's blog, The Wednesday Baker.  Andi felt like a kindred spirit as I read her blog subtitle "One cookie at a time..." With a heading like that, I knew immediately that I'd be baking one of Andi's cookie recipes--to the point that I didn't allow myself to look at any of the other yummy things on her blog until I committed to a cookie recipe.  And by committed, I mean choose three and made Dave pick one, thus ensuring that I had to make them since he'd expect them.  Be sure to check out Andi's blog and take a spin through her sweet treats and good eats.  I already have a few other recipes from Andi that I plan to try and post.