Mix sugars, peanut butter, shortening, butter and egg in large bowl.
If you're wondering why we use both butter and shortening, it's because each plays an important role in the cookie. Butter adds a rich, wonderful flavor, of course. Shortening has less flavor, but a higher melting point, so it gives peanut butter cookies more structure, ensuring they spread less and have a great texture.
Stir in remaining ingredients.
The best way to accurately measure flour is to give it a quick stir and then spoon it into the measuring cup. You'll want to fill it to heaping and then sweep the excess off the top with the flat edge of a butter knife.
Be careful not to overmix here - you want the dough to stay light and fluffy, and overmixing can result in a tough cookie.
Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until firm.
Refrigerating the dough will give it more structure so the cookies spread less and hold their fork marks through baking. Cooling the dough also ensures that all of the ingredients are the same temperature: they'll bake more evenly and the flavors will meld beautifully.
Heat oven to 375°F.
Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
You can also line cookie sheets with parchment paper, which will make cleanup super easy after your baking project.
Flatten in crisscross pattern with fork dipped into sugar.
Bake 9 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. (9 minutes for dark pan, 10 for the light shiny pan.)
Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack.
Once cookies are completely cooled, store them in an airtight container on the kitchen counter for up to 5 days.
[Dec. 2021, Burdick family modified recipe from bettycrocker.com]