Peanut butter cookies, three ways

Whisk the flour, kosher salt and baking soda together.

Beat the soft butter with the granulated and brown sugars and the natural peanut butter, starting on low and then increasing the speed, until pale and light but not super fluffy; scrape down.

Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla paste.

Add all the dry ingredients at once and pulse the mixer on low in short starts and stops so the flour does not fly, then mix until it mostly disappears into a smooth, very soft, almost batter-like dough.

Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl very well and fold by hand until uniform, with no shiny patches of unincorporated butter.

Chill half the dough flat, patted into a block or slab.

Work the other half into a log on parchment: fold the parchment up and over, press a bench scraper against both sheets at an angle toward the dough to force it into a tight cylinder, then roll the whole thing up in plastic wrap and twist both ends to compact it. Flatten the ends and chill it standing on one end.

Level one: weigh one ounce portions of the chilled flat dough, about two tablespoons, roll each into a ball, roll in granulated sugar and set on the baking sheet.

Level one: press the tines of a fork down in one direction and then the other. These cookies barely spread.

Bake at 350F with the rack in the centre, probably 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown across the surface and firm around the edges.

Level two: form and sugar the same way, then press a rounded half teaspoon measure into the centre for a divot.

Reinforce the thumbprint divots with the back of a spoon while hot, and fill each with about a teaspoon of jam while the cookies are still warm so it settles.

Level three: slice the chilled log into rounds about a quarter inch thick, rolling the log as you go so it keeps its round shape; chill it again if it softens.

Sprinkle granulated sugar on tops and bottoms, then punch a centre out of half of them with a small cutter, keeping the punched-out rounds to bake as mini bites.

Bake the linzer rounds in the centre of the oven about 10 minutes, less than the other styles since they are thinner.

To assemble, flip the uncut bottoms over so the sugared side is underneath, spread a thin layer of jam and top with a cut-out cookie.