Cookie dreaming.

POST #2

 

Baking is something that I have loved to do most of my life.

I have fond memories from when I was a child of baking cakes and making homemade French Bread Pizza with my amazing Mum and two brothers; getting messy with tomato puree and being able to sprinkle as much cheese as I wanted all over the bread, delicious! I think this is what started my obsession with eating bread, the carbohydrate goodness and comfort you get from the smell and crunch of a baguette is wonderful.

In my early high school years it was something that I was a little afraid to do, when we actually had to do cookery classes, I lost a little bit of passion for it because I am a rather clumsy person and I am also not the neatest at things and tend to get rather impatient waiting for food to cook. It was something I was unsure about enjoying.

 Every week we’d be asked to buy ingredients to bring it to cook something quite normal to take home with us again. I was never the tallest or strongest little girl and I always remember struggling with the bags of shopping that we’d have to take in. For example, making a fruit salad, we’d have to take in loads of fresh fruit and tinned fruit and cartons of juice (which wasn’t light) and then when we’d made it all, we’d have to take it home in a plastic lunchbox which would most definitely leak all over your school bag and ruin your P.E. kit or maths book and if you had any lessons after cookery you’d just go home with mushy fruit.

I think I just needed to find something that I enjoyed making (and tasting, of course!)

My beautiful step Mom Lani introduced me to baking cookies when I was a teenager. It was a family tradition for her in America to have annual baking days with her mother and grandmother too and I remember her showing me photographs of hundreds of cookies that they’d baked.  My brothers and I used to stay with my Dad and Lani every Saturday and we always had to find something creative to do. Baking cookies was something we did regularly as it meant that we spent time doing it as a family and we also were able to indulge eating different types of cookies until our hearts content.

I have always associated cookies with comfort and pleasure. I don’t think you should ever feel guilty for having a cookie!

Lani taught me many recipes but there is most definitely a favourite that I have continued to bake regularly for many occasions, such as, cold days in with my family, objects of affection for my partner and also for cake sales and fundraisers.

My favourite type are Peanut Butter Cookies!

They are the perfect combination of flavour and texture and depending on your preference you can make them gooey or crunchy you just have to alter your butter and sugar measurements to suit.

All you need to make these cookies are;

.Plain Four (225g)

.Caster Sugar (150g)

.Vanilla Essence (1 table spoon)

.One Egg yolk

.Peanut butter (crunchy not smooth) – (about 5, messy, heaped table spoons)

.Butter suitable for baking (I never really measure my butter, I just throw enough in so the ingredients stick together)

Make sure you pre heat your oven to about 200 degrees; have two baking trays ready with baking paper.

I always start with the flour and sugar in a mixing bowl first, many books suggest adding a pinch of salt, I never do (it’s pointless!) Then add your peanut butter and your regular butter and most importantly get your hands stuck in, make sure it is thoroughly mixed, if it’s crumbly then add more butter. Throw your egg yolk and a splash of vanilla essence in and massage the mixture. You want it to feel like play-doh and you want it to stick together and end up in a big ball.

You don’t need to grease your baking tray, they paper will be enough for your cookies to peel away from when they are cooked and cooled.

You should be able to get about 12-14 cookies from this recipe.

Roll your dough into balls in your hand, again like you’re playing with play-doh and place them individually on your tray and flatten slightly with the palm of your hands.

Once all laid pop them in the oven for 15-20 minutes, let them cook, they’ll be fine, don’t check them too often, only check them maybe at 14/15 minutes and you’ll know how long they’ve got left in your head, they will be lovely and brown once fully cooked!

The most important part is to enjoy it, and if they’re not great then don’t beat yourself up, try again or go to Asda or to your local bakery and buy yourself some cookies that you know will be great. As long as you’re eating some lovely, indulgent bad for you food then it doesn’t matter.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had moments were I’ve cried because my stupid cookies were crap! (Think Amy Adams in Julie and Julia, full on tears on the floor because she couldn’t get something right, or screaming because she couldn’t kill the lobster haha)

I spent my morning baking Peanut Butter cookies, which is why I have ended up writing about them today.

Here’s a photograph of my cookies, yum!

 

Enjoy the recipe if you use it!