nut-fest!

Growing up, whenever my dad was out of town- we missed him, but we also declared our home to have a nut fest. My mom would break out her sweet tooth mix from fresh market, we would make puppy chow, can of nuts came out of the pantry, and really any ideas of anything with nuts went down. (woops ended that with a preposititon) My dad has a severe allergy to nuts, soy protien, and all legumes. So I grew up not eating peanut butter cookies, casseroles, or peas.

Although the peanut originated in South America, it saved the south. It became a cash crop in the south that was rotated with cotton in the 1900's when the boll weevil was ravaging cotton crops throughout the south. I don't love peanuts; however, I ADORE peanut butter!!!! Since getting married, I still haven't adjusted to the freedom I now have to live nut-fest instead of frequenting it during my dad's absence. I still wash my hands or any object profusely after touching anything that "may" have come into contact with nuts. I still hand wash everything that has come into contact with nuts then place it in the dishwasher to insure that all traces of the nuts have been terminated. And I still dry everything with paper towels to keep dish towels from being contaiminated with NUTS! I wonder if T thinks I am crazy, It is a hard habit to break and my dad may come over and happen to touch the corner of my cabinet- so I MUST lysol, scrub, and dry it (with a paper towel) I think I am slightly OCD when it comes to nuts, especially peanuts. What does all of this have to do with cooking, you may be wondering? (if you are still excercising patience and reading this) Yesterday, I baked! WITH PEANUTS!!

I bought some peanut butter chips, I think the first time I went grocery shopping after getting married, with high hopes and dreams of creating crispy on the outside, chewy and melty on the inside, melt in your mouth, THE BEST peanut butter cookies. So five months later, to the day, I pulled them out of the pantry to create them.

First off, a recipe. When working at Muddy's I loved their peanut butter cookies, with less flour and cooked about 3 minutes less than required. It was not very often that I got them like this, but when I did I was happy! I don't know if I've mentioned that I like burnt things... I always want the crispiest, brownest piece of anything served. My family makes fun of me, but whatever-- the flavors develop more :) But peanut butter cookies, I prefer gooey and melty and undercooked. Since I was making these for other people I made a "normal" cookie and cooked it. I found the recipe at crisco.com. My mom's famous chocolate chip cookies contain crisco as well as many great recipes, so I knew not to worry.

http://www.crisco.com/Recipes/Details.aspx?recipeID=1588



I wanted a recipe that not only called for chunky peanut butter, but also peanut butter chips for the most intense peanut butter flavor possible.


My baking corner


The dough


a prime expample of my peanut OCDness. The purple side is for jam and the brown for peanut butter. NO MIXING while making the perfect pb&j!! Thank you, William Sonoma.


I topped some cookies with sugar in the raw and some with regular granulated sugar.


I used parchment paper in lieu of my silpat simply because I didn't want to contaminate the silpat with peanut germs :)


I may have undercooked the first batch :)

The olfactory nerve is incredible! The smells instantly brought me back to the hundreds of batches of peanut butter cookies we baked at the bakery.


sugar in the raw


granulated


sugar in the raw, take 1


granulated, take 1


not a huge milk fan, but it was definitely necessary!


I didn't like the way the first batch came out, so I lowered it to 300* and put it on convection bake.


I also added another 1/2 cup of peanut butter to deepen the peanut butter flavor :) Obviously, I had to sample that one as well.


cooling cookies


granulated perfection


granulated vs. sugar in the raw


Happies!


For T's cookie jar


T's cookie jar


minutes I had to do on the treadmill to counterbalance my 5 cookies :) I HAD to taste the granulated and sugar in the raw pre the extra peanut butter and post. Then there was that one that broke....

Well, the verdict is, they were great! Speaking as a non-cookie fan, they must be pretty good! Oh and the recipe makes about 3 dozen!

Stay tuned, I am making dinner tonight after I get off of work and I will for sure post about it :)