Recipe first. I felt it coming when my husband asked me three times if I was going to the supermarket (no, no, and no) and then moved around the kitchen saying that there wasn't anything bad to eat. Our American wwoofer lifted his eyes in surprise, but I knew exactly what it all meant, and replied that the cookie jar is empty on purpose. Yes, that he worked it out too, I am not the type that simply forgets to fill the tins, I simply try to 'regulate' the weekly intake of sugar in this family. But then I felt guilty, with the wwoofer we had an extra mouth to feed, and another thought crossed my mind: I never made peanut butter cookies!
When I told the American he couldn't believe it, they are such a classic US thing, but to be honest I am not really fond of them and I rarely eat peanut butter, which is also the only food that my kids don't like.
But my husband loves it, so I decided to go for peanut butter and chocolate and invent something that would feel more .... decadent?
I used:
200 g smooth peanut butter (with salt)
100 g 72% dark chocolate, melted
100 g sugar
1 egg
more sugar, regular and icing, to dust.
It is great to see that flour is not needed (gluten free, hurrah!!) you realize that as soon as the egg goes in: everything becomes really thick! I rolled the mixture into walnut size balls and then rolled half of them in icing sugar and the other half in regular sugar before baking them. I wanted to see the difference, and regular sugar works better for this recipe, possibly because there is no butter.
Baking flattens the balls into little domes, keep it at 180°C for about 16 minutes, no more than 18 if you like me like the cookies to be soft inside. Let them cool completely outside the oven before removing from the baking tray.
I actually had step by step images but they got lost while a keen helper erased more images that needed to be erased from my phone, but the process is very simple and similar to this
one, a method that I often use, with few variations, to make most of my chocolate cookies. Of course I didn't tell this to Jacob, the American wwoofer, since he was so impressed that without having ever made peanut butter cookies I came up with these little beauties in less than 40 minutes, and no recipe!
Of course he loved them, so did my husband, but what about the kids? The came home from school and smelled chocolate. Arantxa was the first, one bite and she looked at me, but her expression wasn't happy.
What did you put in it?
You tell me, use your sense of taste!
Mmmh, some sort of nut... hazelnut?
No.
I thought so, I like hazelnuts... oh... no... you didn't!!! How could you!!!!
Max hadn't taste his yet
What!!! What is it, what did she put in it!!
Shhh don't tell him...
Peanut butter!!! She put peanut butter in!!!
You did?
Yes... but the chocolate is stronger, try...
Yes, they are not bad, you can just taste the peanut butter.
No, this is not good, these are like the cookies that Dad likes...
... And she doesn't. So, feeling guilty, I also made some vanilla cupcakes :-).
Next chapter: on Wednesday I went to a social media seminar held by the Guild of Food Writers. I have been a member for years, but attended very few events, and it was about time I showed up again. Nothing new to report back to food bloggers about the content of the seminar itself, since all of us seem to be already connected to most of the social media available now, but there is one thing that I like to tell you: Greig Buckley, the presenter, mentioned the
New Zealand Food Bloggers Association, the fact that we had our first well attended
conference, and put up on the screen
this page, telling how many members there are already. I think that I was the most surprised person there. I was surprised because bloggers were talked about so 'officially'. And I was the only member there who also happens to be a (non commercial) blogger. I asked the committee if they would consider food bloggers as potential Food Writers Guild members, and they said yes, they had talked about it already (didn't I read the newsletter???), and bloggers are food writers (or write about food...) although individual blogs will need to be considered first for 'quality'. But mostly I had the impression that food bloggers matter, I said that food bloggers can be very powerful (why use half terms here?) and a lot of people nodded. Maybe not everybody likes it, but that is another matter.
Well, happy weekend to all, I leave you with one of Arantxa's art pieces, a thank you token for watching and supporting her
video.
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| Artwork by Arantxa Zecchini Dowling© |
Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©
