Peanut Butter Cookies

I should really title this entry "the hidden danger of peanut butter cookies." What danger? What harm in a bite of peanut butterlicious chunkity goodness, a soft-as-cotton-candy cookie that goes in the mouth and down the pipe without any struggle at all? That's it, right there! I write in a state of pb cookie shock syndrome. There are no symptoms, really, that's what makes it hard to identify, and therefore, better to take preventative measures to avoid. I've eaten two peanut butter cookies and feel no side effects, my body producing no headache, feeling of satiety or other signal to keep me from polishing off two more. Beware, friends, readers of the danger in the peanut butter cookie. I warn you not to attempt the recipe below. Do NOT make these at home. The peanut butter will go straight to your thighs/hips/stomach/(insert "culprit" body part here) and your brain and tastebuds will sense nothing but pleasure.

Muhahaha!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Adapted from the Country Baker: Cookies & Crackers, Hearst Books, 1993.

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (Skippy all the way--the recipe even says DON'T use the "health-food variety" stuff.)

1 egg

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour (bleached)

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt (or a pinch)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease or use silpat mats on 2 baking sheets. In a large bowl, by hand or with electric mixer beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter and continue beating until well-mixed. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Use a low speed and add in flour, baking powder and salt. At this point, if using an electric mixer, set aside and continue mixing batter by hand with a spatula--it's easier to scrape the sides of the bowl and make the dough form into a well-mixed ball. Add semi-sweet chocolate chips, if desired, and stir until they're mixed into batter.

Using two spoons, scoop heaping spoonfuls of dough (and scrape off) onto baking sheet and press down until flat, about 1/4" thick. Use the back of a fork to press gently onto the tops of the cookies, creating a criss cross pattern. Bake cookies for 10 to 13 minutes, until slightly golden (if you prefer softer cookies) or dark gold (for crispier cookies). Allow to cool on wire rack. Then stuff your face silly or give away to colleagues or friends before you let things spiral out of control.

Date Cake

Chopped dates are so cute. But so painful for the chopping hand.

Got your attention, didn't I?! However, the date in question is none other than the dried fruit, so sweet one might mistake it for candy. I was inspired not by lutefisk tonight (thanks to Tiffany for the suggestion), but by the sultry sugar and spice of the Middle Eastern Passover traditions (though Passover is still a few weeks away. Not at Safeway, where a large front of store display offers goodies from Streit's and Manishewitz "on sale."). Now that I've made a recipe that calls for "finely chopped dates" I have to ask the recipe's creator--are you NUTS? Chopping those dates--and I took great pains just to get them coarsely chopped (forget "finely")--is probably going to account for my early onset arthritis.

Tonight's recipe hails from the April 2008 edition of Gourmet. I made a mistake in the production of this cake, adding the egg yolks to the nut mixture instead of the egg whites, as specified in the recipe. I don't know how this happened, yet miraculously the cake turned out fine. Mine was a bit on the moist side, due in part to my use of too much date-soaked water. Oh well--what's done is done. Now it's time to eat cake!

Walnut-Date Torte, mostly word-for-word but slightly adapted from Gourmet
1/4 c boiling hot water
1 1/2 c pitted dates, finely chopped
1 1/2 c walnuts, toasted and cooled
3/4 c sugar
2/3 c matzoh meal (or Passover cake flour)
zest of 1 orange
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
4 large eggs, separated, at room temp 30 minutes

**Note! I see one thing that I did wrong. I completely ignored the direction for 1/4 c hot water. Instead, I added enough--more than 1/4 cup--to cover the dates. Proof that I really should read every word in a recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in the middle. Spray or grease a 9" round cake pan. Pour hot water over dates and let stand 15 minutes to soften. In a food processor, grind up toasted walnuts and add 1/4 cup sugar until the mixture turns powdery. Add zest, cardamom and salt and pulse until blended. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Then add the remaining sugar and continue beating until they form glossy stiff peaks. Add the egg yolks to dates and whisk until mixed. Fold the egg-date mixture into the egg whites. Finally, add the nut mixture to the egg batter and fold in until well mixed. Pour into cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown and cake springs from pan sides.

A reddish-brown tint from the date pieces peeks out at the eater.

The Gourmet recipe says to make a confectioner's sugar-potato starch mix to top the cake, but I just used the sugar. It is a very sweet cake, so no sugar topping is needed; it's really only there for presentation. Do you like it?

Grape Jelly-Chili Meatballs

My mom and I discuss this odd dish frequently. This is one of the few all-American (kind of) meals she makes--with a twist. The meatballs (which have morphed from being made with ground beef to ground turkey over the years,) are then served with pasta--preferably bow-tie/butterfly shapes (farfalle)--and covered in a delicious stovetop brew of grape jelly and chili sauce. EWW, right? Wrong--these are so good. As soon as I get the recipe from my mom, I'll post.

And now, a challenge. Readers, I've been lacking inspiration in the kitchen as of late. (As you guessed by my infrequent posting.) I haven't made anything new and exciting, instead running through the usual kitchen staples: chili, stir fries, pasta. It's just a passing phase, and I'll be back to trying new recipes, but I'd love to know if you have a food challenge for me in the meantime. Ideas?

Shower recap

Last week my friend Stephanie and I hosted a bridal shower for our friend Galit. I thought that the fruit arrangement stylings of Steph should be displayed here. I can't help from reviewing this photo over and over. Steph, you made the fruit look so beautiful!! Following that is a picture of the apple tart that I made with some help from my mom. It looked beautiful, but the crust came out too hard for my liking. I had to shuttle it away from the table and cut it into slices hidden from view, for fear of tart flying off the plate, or worse yet, breaking Stephanie's cake plate. The filling was practically all apples: the filling sauteed apples with a small amount of sugar, and the topping raw apple slices. (The theme of the shower being a "tea," fruit and fruit tarts came to mind as being appropriate!)

As it turned out, the most rewarding part of the whole event wasn't the amount of sugar involved, but seeing the bride-to-be so happy with our work.

Violet Crumble

I was suckered by the charms of Curtis Stone on an episode of Take Home Chef and went out to buy an Australian sweet manufactured by Nestle as a result: the Violet Crumble. Curtis used this candy bar as a topping on cheesecake to try and connect with the palate of the 30-something Aussie lass he found in an L.A. area Whole Foods. All this talk of Violet Crumble and cheesecake made me hungry for something--I just wasn't sure it was the combination of the two. (This is what I love about Nestle: though the coporation is openly hated here in the US--but quietly loved for it's Kit Kats and Hot Cocoa with Marshmallows--they really do bring a better quality milk chocolate to the entire world, with different products in every chocoholic country. Sure, some partially hydrogenated fats and lots of refined white sugars may be involved, but the product beats out Hershey's any day for taste.) Well, the Nestle product destined for Australian audiences turns out to be not bad at all--in fact, it's quite good! The golden interior (as seen above, in the photo by "Rosa,") actually tastes a bit like desiccated toasted marshmallows. One could say it's like a pre-packaged s'more, sans graham cracker.

Speaking of graham crackers, while I liked the Violet Crumble, I wouldn't think of adding it to something as rich and simple as cheesecake. Better to let the creamy sweetness of the cheese come through on its own. While I admire Curtis on some levels--one being that he's a hot Aussie--I'm not always so sure of his baking improvisation skills.

Lots o spaghetti, oh!

A week has flown by without much posting. What can I say--will you forgive me? Still, I have been eating, as usual. Weird aches and pains ail me, but nothing stops me from loving food. It's a sickness.

At any rate, in the past few days I've been mixing it up with spaghetti. What is "it"? Turkey meat sauce, broccoli, chicken sausage, cheese. Uhmm-mmm. Only the tastiest of salty treats for my spaghetti (excluding one favorite--prosciutto).

Thursday I took in a spaghetti crust pie, a delicious dish from my childhood, made straight from Better Homes and Gardens Step-by-Step Kids' Cookbook. And tonight I made spaghetti with meat sauce (ground turkey), only the turkey didn't look "normal;" it seemed almost fluid, liquidy, and didn't break up into big chunks, and almost smoothed out entirely into the tomato sauce. WEIRD. Still, it's hard to go wrong with garlic, tomatoes and meat. At least it all tasted good!

Spaghetti Crust Pie
6-8 oz spaghetti
2 tbsp butter
2 eggs, whisked
1/3 c parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
tomato sauce (your own/store bought)
cheddar cheese
additional toppings of your choosing

Cook and drain pasta. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine pasta, butter, eggs and cheese. Stir until well mixed. Pour into a buttered 9 or 10" pie pan and press gently into sides so that it forms a pie "crust." Pour sauce and toppings on top (except cheese) and bake in oven for 20 minutes. Then add cheese and let cook for 5-10 minutes more, until it starts to bubble, but not burn. Let cool 10 minutes, then serve. Enjoy!