Peanut butter and cherry cookies

Adapted from a recipe I tore out of a Sainsburys magazine

There is something completely cathartic and magical about baking, and I don’t do it anywhere near as much as I should. Cookies are actually really quick to knock together, and oh so satisfying. As the winter carries on and gets even more damp, dark and relentless, treats like these are always welcome.

As you may have noticed, I love cooking with peanut butter. Peanut butter and jam on toast is one of my guilty pleasures. I practically lived off it when I was at university. For me the jam has to be a purple kind as opposed to red – blackcurrant or cherry, never strawberry. Classy people may turn their noses up at ‘pb and j’, but really, it is just another example of how sweet and salty can be the best of friends.

These cookies are absolutely fantastic - they echo the ways in which peanut butter and jam work, but in a more sophisticated and less sticky way. I have reduced the sugar a lot from the original recipe, but they are sweet enough, with delicious bursts of sweet and sour from the cherries.

Makes 24 ish

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter, softened

125g light muscavado sugar (this is les sugar than the original recipe)

200g crunchy peanut butter – I use Meridian brand, which contains no added sugar, salt, palm oil, or anything else other than peanuts - I recommend using it for cooking, but for just eating it on toast it takes some getting used to.

1 large egg

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

200g plain flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract, optional

125g dried cherries – I used dried morello cherries

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 c with fan, and line two baking trays with baking paper.

Mix the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until creamy and amalgamated. Mix in the peanut butter and egg, and then sift in the bicarbonate of soda, flour, and salt. Stir well and add the cherries and vanilla if using. Mix everything together until a soft dough forms.

Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and space them evenly on the baking sheets, use a fork to flatten them a bit and make some cute groove shapes in the top.

Bake for 12 – 14 minutes – it is a little tricky to tell if they are done because the dough is brown-ish anyway from the peanut butter. They will be soft when they come out of the oven, but will harden up as they cool down. 

Peanut butter chocolate pretzels

For a while I was thinking about giving up sugar and white carbs. Seriously. But then I thought, peanut butter chocolate pretzels, and that was the end of that.

These are absolutely incredible, and so much fun to make too. Make them for anyone and they will love you forever. I made these babies as a gift for a colleague who earned massive respect for eating peanut butter out of a jar with a spoon.

I’m still waiting for my cheque from Skippy for the peanut butter cookbook, hopefully that will happen soon.

 Makes 25-30 large pretzels – more, obviously, if you use regular sized ones.

150g large pretzels (I used Penn State giant pretzels from Asda)

50g dark muscovado sugar

200g icing sugar

50g unsalted butter or vegan margarine – softened

200g peanut butter – crunchy or smooth depending on preference

400g dark chocolate, or 200g dark chocolate and 200g milk chocolate. I wouldn’t recommend using 100% milk chocolate though, it would be much too sickly.

This is the same mixture as used in the peanut butter cups recipe. You can't just use ‘neat’ peanut butter because it is much too sticky. The dark muscavado gives a fantastic caramel-y background note.

Line a tray with greaseproof paper or foil.

Mix up the sugars, butter and peanut butter in a large bowl until combined into a soft dough-like consistency. Press small blobs of the peanut butter mixture into two of the holes in each pretzel.

Melt the chocolate carefully in a microwave or over a bain-marie, and dip the pretzel in the chocolate, so that both peanut butter-filled holes are covered. Lay the pretzels on the prepared tray to set. Although the pretzels do not need to be kept in the fridge, refrigerate them for a few hours at least to harden up the peanut butter filling. 

Dark chocolate peanut butter cups

I think I could probably write an entire cookbook based on recipes using peanut butter – seeing how much I get through, maybe Skippy will sponsor one. My love for peanut butter cups, and probably peanut as ‘sweet’ comes from my first trip to New York as a conscious foodie aged 14 (all I remember from my trip at the age of 4 is getting soaked by my cousin Josh at a water fountain outside the Smithsonian). Reese’s Peanut Butter cups completely changed my world. Coming home from that trip my suitcase basically consisted of peanut butter cups, some variations on the theme including cookie and grape jelly, and a pair of Steve Madden platforms. Well I guess that’s what happens when a 14 year old is in the US without parental supervision. Speaking of foodie consciousness by the way, this trip was also the first time that I tried, and fell in love with, both sushi and aubergines (I had been afraid of them previously). It also put an end of my refusal to eat red meat. Much much love to all my American family for contributing to this enlightenment.

These peanut butter cups were another one of the chocolates made with T.O.M on our chocolate day a few weeks ago. The original recipe comes from Nigella Lawson’s How to be a Domestic Goddess, which I think I count as my favourite book just because of the title. See evidence of me getting carried away with being a ‘domestic goddess’ here. T.O.M and I have made this before in its original state, the peanut butter square, but this time on our chocolate day we were feeling a little more ambitious.

When I told a colleague that I was planning on making peanut butter cups, her response was ‘you know that you can get them in the shops right’? Obviously it takes a little more time to paint the cupcake cases with melted chocolate, but it really is worth it. The dark chocolate gives them a bitterness that is a perfect foil for the sweetness of the peanut filling, and makes them feel a little more grown-up, and different from Reese’s. See my post on honeycomb-peanut chocolate bites (also Nigella) for some thoughts on why salty peanut goes so well with chocolate.

Makes about 15 cups, more or less depending on how big you make them, obviously. T.O.M and I made a double batch, from which we made about 18 cups and a big rectangle of chocolate peanut butter squares.

Big thanks again to Steven for the tremendous photos

Ingredients

       50g muscovado sugar

       200g icing sugar

       50g unsalted butter or vegan margarine - softened

       200g peanut butter – crunchy or smooth depending on preference

       Make sure that you have about 400g of dark chocolate, although you probably wont need all of it.

       Cupcake cases

First make the chocolate cases. Melting chocolate can be very temperamental, so I tend not to melt more than 50-100g at a time. Either use the microwave or a bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water making sure that no steam or condensation makes its way into the chocolate, or it will seize. Using a teaspoon (or a clean paintbrush) coat the base of the cupcake case with melted chocolate, carefully working the chocolate up the sides to about a third of the way up. Set the cases aside to firm up.

In a large bowl, mix together the sugars, butter and peanut butter together. I know it seems like a scary list of ingredients, but trust me it works – the muscavado sugar gives a brilliant sandy texture. Use a food processor for this if you want, it is not the easiest thing to mix by hand.

When the chocolate cases are hardened, take a small handfuls of the peanut mixture, roll it into flat-ish circles using your hands, and press them into the cases. Make sure that the peanut doesn’t come up higher than the edge of the chocolate, otherwise there will be gaps and cracks in the finished cups.

When this is done, melt a little more chocolate to cover over the tops. Make sure that the chocolate is completely hardened before turning them out of the paper cases – but don’t put them in the fridge.

Satay noodles for drunken nights

Peanut butter noodles for when you come home too drunk to function, and too hungry to sleep. Needless to say, this dish was one of my staples when I was at university. They are also very good for hangovers.

For the sauce

1 heaped tbsp peanut butter

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

½ tbsp soy sauce (more can be added later to season)

½ tbsp rice vinegar

1 tsp honey

juice of at least ¼ a lime

Noodles –

I would go for medium egg noodles here, but rice noodles work well too. This dish isn’t refined enough for soba or buckwheat, and it would be a little ‘much’ with udon. Spaghetti does not count, under any circumstances.

Additions –

If you are too drunk to be handling sharp objects, go for some frozen veggies – peas, corn or edamame. Asda does a very handy frozen stir-fry mix, which is perfect for drunken cooking. A packet of fresh mangetout/ sugarsnap peas or baby corn would also do nicely. If you feel that you could handle a knife safely, some sliced spring onions, a little sliced carrot, and a wedge of fresh coriander would be good too.

Method –

It couldn’t be simpler. Cook the noodles in boiling water according to the packet instructions. Remember to use a fork to break the block up, so that you don’t get a big solid lump of noodle.

While they are cooking, mix/melt the sauce ingredients together in a mug or bowl, using a little boiling water to melt the peanut butter into a smooth sauce.

If using any veggie additions, add them to the water with the noodles a minute or two before the end of the cooking time.

Drain the noodles, mix with the sauce and serve with extra lime juice, and fresh coriander if you have any. At this point I will usually then write my name on the noodles in siracha. And make sure you drink plenty of water.

Butternut Squash, Spinach and Peanut Curry

This recipe is from the ‘soulful grub’ section of Spooning with Rosie by Rosie Lovell, which I wrote about in the Interlude 2 blog post. She writes that this is the dish she makes when she is feeling really blue, and this is something I can really relate to. It is rich, filling and comforting, and really easy to make. It is, “just the thing when you are feeling the effects of a late night or the sudden onset on despondency.” Its just all about the peanut butter. As you may have noticed, I cook with it a lot. I tend to always have 2 jars on the go – a 40oz (over a kilo) jar of crunchy skippy for eating, and something cheaper for cooking with. All of the three peanut butter-based stew/curries are very different, but I think that this one, together with the kale and pineapple one are some of my most successful vegetarian entrees ever. This dish was really delicious and I highly recommend it. Thanks to Vikki for pointing it out to me.

As with any of my recipes, feel free to adjust/change the veggies as you please.

Ingredients

1 small/medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 2cm chunks

1 large onion, diced not too small

1-2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into slightly larger chunks than the squash
1 aubergine cut into chunks, some trimmed okra or whatever else you fancy

2 garlic cloves, smashed and finely chopped

1 fresh chill, finely chopped (she recommends removing half of the seeds – I actually didn’t have one so used 2 small dried chillies, I like it spicy)

2tbsp sunflower oil

1 tsp curry powder (I used medium heat)

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tins chopped tomatoes

3 generous tbsp peanut butter (preferably crunchy)

1 bag baby spinach
Generous pinch of granulated sugar

Lots of black pepper (freshly ground, not that horrible cigarette-ash powder stuff)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the squash and onion and sweat for about 5 minutes before adding the garlic and chilli. Fry for a few more minutes and add the spices. Coat all the veggies and cook for a few minutes more. Add the tomatoes and the sweet potato and bring to the boil. Put the lid on and let everything simmer for 15-25 minutes, until the veggies are cooked through, but not falling apart.

After the are cooked, skim a ladle of sauce off the top of the pan, and place it in a jug or bowl with the peanut butter. Blend it all together until fully incorporated and then return to the pan and stir into the curry. Fold in the spinach, plus a little water if its too thick and the sugar. Put the lid back no the pan for a few more minutes until the spinach is wilted and the curry has a silky, thick texture. Season with lots of pepper and serve in bowls with rice and/or bread. This is really good with a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice.

West African Style Kale, Pineapple & Peanut Stew

I made this dish about a month or so ago, and I have to say that it was one of the most surprising things have ever made. The dinner where it debuted was an interesting event, kind of an African-themed hamster wake. It was a great evening and a good time was had by all I think, and it was a very decent send-off for Coco the hamster.

African food is pretty new to me (apart from North Africa and South African Braai), but after a few of my friends have travelled there and raved about it, I looked into it a bit more. I found this recipe online after searching for kale based, vegan, West-African recipes, and it sounded so so weird and a little bit disgusting, I just had to try it. I was looking for kale recipes as I had discovered on a previous investigation that it is very popular in a range of dishes throughout the world. The recipe is from Mollie Katzen, so not exactly authentic – but as she is the author of one of my first and most beloved cookbooks The Moosewood Cookbook – I knew that it would be worth a try. And I was so right. Now I was really dubious, even as it was cooking I thought that it would be horrible. But then I tasted it, and it was incredible – DELICIOUS!!! sweet, savoury and spicy - flavour combinations that work so well together, in an earthy, hearty and totally new kind of way. This recipe is from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, I found it on the website www.veganconnection.com

Serves 4 – very easy. Serve on rice, or couscous, or with flatbread.

Ingredients

1 onion, diced not that small


2 garlic cloves, crushed

Vegetable or other flavourless oil, approx 1 tbsp

1 bunch of kale or Swiss chard (4 cups sliced)
 - I used about 1 and a bit bags of kale from Sainsburys – they are really large but once all the stalks had been picked out, it wasn’t as much as it seemed. Also remember that it cooks down a lot.

2 cups undrained canned crushed pineapple (20-ounce can)
- I used one regular sized can

½ cup peanut butter
- use a few tbsp of hot water to melt it

Generous shakes of Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce
 - you need to be able to taste the spice, as it balances the sweetness of the pineapple

handful chopped fresh coriander


salt to taste


big handful crushed skinless peanuts (if using salted peanuts then put less salt in the main dish)

2 or 3 sliced spring onions
(including the green parts)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onions for about 10 minutes adding the garlic about halfway, stirring frequently, they are lightly browned. While the onions and garlic are frying, wash the kale carefully, discarding large stems and any blemished leaves. Of the leaves are whole shred them into 1inch slices.

Add the pineapple and its juice to the onions in the pan along with a tablespoon or 2 of hot water, and bring it to a simmer. Stir in the kale, cover, and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring a couple of times, until just tender. Mix in the peanut butter, Tabasco and coriander and simmer for a couple more minutes. Season and serve topped with crushed peanuts, chopped spring onions, fresh coriander and a wedge of lime.

West African style sweet potato and peanut stew

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of co-hosting a Friday night for Wandering Jews.  Wandering Jews is a groups organized by the amazing Jo and Jude, with the simple premise of getting together once a month with old friends and new and sharing in delicious vegetarian potluck in a different venue each month.  As my housemate Hannah and I are pretty new to the scene, we decided to give the evening a theme of Shehechiyanu, or newness.  The translation of the prayer blesses our g-d for having ‘granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion.’  I like to think of it as a way not to take life for granted, to see the excitement in every day and to, as often as you can, really push yourself to trying something new.

I wanted to bring this emphasis on newness into my cooking with the event.  I needed something vegan and warming, which could feed a lot of people.  My fall-back dish for this kind of thing would be some kind of red and yellow dahl, but I wanted to break out of my comfort zone.  I started looking into West African recipes as I knew from various cookery programmes (mainly the hairy bikers I think) and friends’ travel experiences that it was a style of cooking which would incorporate all the things I wanted: vegan, protein, complexity of flavour, and warmth.  The following is the recipe for the dish I made, which is an amalgamation of many different peanut stews that I found online.

Feeds a lot of people

2 - 3 very large white flesh sweet potato –with purple skin, peeled and cut into large-ish chunks

3 - 4 yellow flesh sweet potato, peeled and cut into slightly smaller chunks

a couple of carrots, if you happen to have them, peeled and sliced

1-2 aubergines, diced

2 red peppers, diced into quite large chunks

1 onion, cut into large chunks

1 onion, diced very fine

2 cans of chopped tomatoes

1 can/tetra-pack of sieved tomatoes

approximately 4 tablespoons of peanut butter (depending on how much you have), smooth or chunky depending on personal preference

1 inch lump of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 fresh chilis (I used 1 red and 1 green) deseeded if you want, finely diced.

½ teaspoon cinnamon

2 heaped teaspoons cumin

1 heaped teaspoon coriander

salt

a packet of roasted, salted peanuts, roughly chopped

the juice of 1-2 limes

big bunch of fresh parsley, washed and chopped.

You can also add in a can of chick peas for some additional bulk.

In a microwaveable bowl or small saucepan, combine the small diced onion, ginger, garic, chili and peanut butter with 1 can of tomatoes and a little water.  Cook, stirring from time to time until the peanut butter has amalgamated with the other ingredients and created a sauce. 

Add the sauce and all remaining ingredients except for the peanuts, lime and parsley to a large pot.  Top up with water – just a little, add more if it looks a little dry halfway through cooking – and cook for about 40 minutes-1 hour, until everything is cooked but not falling apart.  Just before serving, add the lime juice, parsley and peanuts, adjust the seasoning and warm through.

Peanut Butter Fudge

This is a Sophie Dahl recipe, its absolutely fantastic, and easily adaptable to vegan. This recipe was on her bbc tv series, called something wonderful like ‘Miss Dahl’s voluptuous delights’ and I actually really enjoyed it, such a nice change from Nigella, and Jamie, who’s later shows have them becoming almost parodies of themselves.  Sophie’s cookbook is pretty great too.  Although the recipes aren’t exactly earth-shattering, it is a really lovely read.  This fudge recipe isn’t in the book, but it is available online.

I have made this a few times and it is pretty foolproof.  Just make sure that you are really patient with boiling the sugar and milk, and give it the time it needs.  While it does seem like a lot of sugar, it does make a lot of fudge.  In the past I have made it with a layer of chocolate on the top (melt the chocolate with a bit of butter or cream to stop it from hardening too solid and snapping when you cut the fudge), which is great, but it is equally delicious without it.

Ingredients

                  125g/4½oz butter/ vegan margarine 

                  500g/1lb 2oz dark brown sugar

                  120ml/4fl oz milk / soy milk

                  250g/9oz crunchy peanut butter

                  1 vanilla pod, seeds only (I didn’t bother with this)

                  300g/10½oz icing sugar

.                 Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.

.                 Stir in the brown sugar and milk, and bring to the boil for 2-3 minutes, without stirring.

.                 Remove from the heat, and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla seeds if using.

.                 Place the icing sugar in a large bowl, and pour the hot butter and sugar mixture on top. Using a wooden spoon, beat the mixture until smooth (careful not to burn yourself).

.                 Pour into a 20cm/8in square baking tray, and set aside to cool slightly, then place in the fridge to chill completely.

Cut the fudge into squares and store in an airtight container.

recipe and image from http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/peanutbutterfudge_93630

'Sexy' Peanut Sauce

This is so exciting, my first ever guest blogger, Alli.  I first tried this incredible sauce on my first ever Shabbat in Willesden, which was also the day I met Alli.  Vegan Canadian Thanksgiving was a bit of a drop in the deep-end, but it was brilliant.  I learnt all about poutine, the Québécois accent (thanks Danny) and the Canadian National Anthem ‘Oh Canada…’ Best of all I got to meet Alli, and try her amazing cooking.  And this sauce really is sexy.  I know it might seem like an odd combination but it totally works.  I spent most of my student mealtimes experimenting with peanut butter on noodles in one form or another, but this one really nails it – and the alternative version is really good too.  Its great on noodles, as a spoonful in a stir fry, or simply as a dip.  Big thanks also to the wonderful Amanda – who needs to come and visit again soon!

If anyone wants to be featured as a guest blogger on The Great Cookery Adventure then all you have to do is cook me something amazing :) 

And now I proudly introduce the wonderful Alli:

When I started University, I wasn't able to cook-- which led to me depending on the kindness of my friend more often then not. One day, my friend Amanda (who is obsessed-- to put it lightly-- with peanut butter) taught me her favourite recipe for pasta: Peanut Noodles. Miri decided that this sauce is sexy, and voila: Sexy Peaunt Noodles!

6 TB of each of the following:

- Rice Vinegar

- Sugar

- Soya Sauce

- Oil (I like to use Sesame oil, but vegetable oil will suffice).

1/2- 3/4 cup of Peanut Butter (depending on how much you love peanut butter). I prefer crunchy, as then you get the chunks that you get in a Pad Thai sauce, but creamy is delicious as well.

Put together over heat until you can no longer see or feel the sugar or peanut butter (5-7 minutes on a good flame). Serve hot on noodles, or use as a dip.

ALTERANTIVE VERSION

Slightly less sexy, but here you go!

I was cooking for a friend who doesn't like peanut butter, but had few ingredients (or little time) to make him his own separate dish. So instead, I mixed the following:

6 TB of Rice Vinegar (note: I ran out of Rice Vinegar (I make this a lot!) so I used half regular vinegar and half rice vinegar)

5 TB of Sugar (I was cooking for "health conscious" people)

6 TB of Soya Sauce

6 TB of Vegetable Oil (I was cooking for someone who hated Sesame Oil-- my friends are picky!)

1/4 cup of Peanut Butter

I cooked them the same way I normally do, and I served them on noodles-- lovely dish, got lots of praise! 

Enjoy :)