Peanut Butter Cookies

Good evening my lovelies, I hope your Monday was almost bearable. This morning I was in a baking mood and seeing as we have two very empty and sad looking cake tins in the house I thought it was about time that they were topped up. I haven't uploaded a baking blog post for a while now so I thought it was only time that I cracked on and got going again. This is my first baking post for 2016 so that's quite special.

I absolutely adore peanut butter. I always have done ever since I was a little girl. Me and my Mum have been a little bit obsessed with trying all of the different ranges of organic nut butters. Previously I had only tried peanut butter but we have now also discovered things like almond, hazelnut, cashew, macadamia, brazil nut and even pumpkin seed butter. The list is endless and there are dozens of others we are still yet to try all ranging from smooth to crunchy. We might even try making our own. We love toasting seeds and nuts so we might as well try making our own butters. Gradually I have been converting Mum to peanut butter in sweets such as chocolates and cookies. Over Christmas we had some amazing white chocolate and peanut butter chocolate truffles which were sensational. I am obsessed with peanut butter at the moment I want to try and incorporate it into biscuits, cakes, cheesecakes, whoopie pies and so many more.

Yes I realise I have written an entire paragraph just about peanut butter.

I thought I would start off simple and bake some peanut butter cookies. These aren't the prettiest of cookies but they honestly taste delicious. I'm not one to blow my own trumpet but this was a new recipe and I was dead chuffed with these. The cookies are golden and crisp yet they are really gooey in the middle. Just how a cookie should be. You could use either smooth or crunchy peanut butter but I opted for crunchy. Two reasons: A) I have never tried crunchy peanut butter before and I wanted to test it out and B) I thought it would give the cookies a bit of texture. Crunchy worked really well although I would still be intrigued to try smooth as well. For the cookies you will need to use a firm peanut butter, not the gorgeous Meridan organic peanut butters that you can find in health food shops with a more oily consistency which I adore in a toasted pitta bread. I still found a firm really nice organic peanut butter that didn't have the artificial taste that some can have. The one I used was from a brand called Whole Earth.

These are best enjoyed whilst warm and freshly baked from the oven. I know this for a fact as I enjoyed two of these today with a Nespresso coffee. I would recommend a couple of these with a warm cup of coffee it is a very good match. They are so quick and easy to make with very few ingredients. I know if need be such as guests or an empty biscuit tin I could knock a batch up instantly and feel like a supreme domestic goddess.

Ingredients - makes 10

200g crunchy or smooth peanut butter
150g golden caster sugar
1 egg

Method

1) Preheat your oven to 180°C/ 160°Fan/ Gas mark 4 and grease and line two baking trays with baking paper

2) Mix the peanut butter and sugar together in a large bowl

3) Mix in the egg to your peanut butter mixture to form a dough

4) Place cherry tomato sized dough balls evenly on a baking tray. Press each ball a little to form a flat surface

5) Bake in the oven for 12 minutes until golden

6) Allow the cookies to cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool completely

If you are a peanut butter freak like me then you will love these simple sweet treats. Let me know in the comments if you try these and how you found them. I think my next experiment might be some peanut butter chocolate brownies.

XXX