Page 143 in the old book / page 177 in the new book
Another plain, but very good cookie. The twist here is that raw sugar is used, which contributes to the crunchy, crumbly texture of the cookies.
I used a natural style peanut butter again for these cookies. I made these once before and remember them having a firmer (not so crumbly) texture. Either I'm remembering wrong, or possibly the peanut butter I used made the difference. It was the same variety, it's just that it had been hanging around longer. If you've ever bought this type of peanut butter, you know that the oil separates out with time. You're supposed to stir it back in, but I always blot it with a paper towel or pour it off. I wind up with some very solid peanut butter (not exactly spreadable!), but I rationalize that it's healthier since it's lower in fat. Next time I'd be tempted to cut back on the butter a little to see what happens, that is unless I've got some old peanut butter hanging around!
Update - I just remembered the other difference. I was out of unsalted butter and used salted butter. Hmmm...
These cookies are a little difficult to slice - they tend to crumble on the bottom edge - but they can easily be mended with your fingers. In spite of these slicing woes, they always seem to bake up to near-perfect circles.
The panel was lukewarm on these cookies, but they did have their fans.
Suzanne: "Whole wheat must mean that the cookie is healthy and therefore we can have as many as we want. I also like anything with peanut butter in them and I like the crunchy texture. Even though the cookie was healthy, had peanut butter and was crunchy, it wasn’t anything special so I gave it a rating of 3. Rating- 3.0"
Denny: "My Aunt Josephine made the best PB cookies ever, so I'm not objective. Rating - 3.0"
Laura: "Tasty and crunchy and peanutty. A tad crumbly, but still delish. Rating - 3.5"
Terri: "Very tasty, especially if you like peanut butter. These remind me of a shortbread cookie with the peanut butter flavor. Rating - 3.0"
Overall rating by the panel - 3.1
Next week - Icebox Nut Cookies
Nutrition Facts
11 comments:
hi cathy, as you know, i'm a real peanut butter fiend, so this is a real winner in my books ;) plain jane or not, they sure look and sound scrummy!
Well, I'm a fan of these. I love a crunchy PB cookie.
Cathy-
Thank you for writing this blog! I absolutely enjoy the thourough, methodological way you are going through the cookbook page by page, cookie by cookie, following each recipe precisely so that it's easier to see what went wrong- what puts the blog over the top of the excellence scale for me though is that you include nutrition information for each and every recipe you post. Do you calculate the nutrition yourself, or does Maida do it for you?
Now, the other thought I had was that I love your posts, but I need recipes to tide me over in between Mondays!! I went through many of your "favorite places" links, but I couldn't find anyone who even bothered with nutrition information let alone is half as precise as you are (no disrespect intended to those other bloggers, of course). So in your web travels, have you come across many other blogs like yours, with nutrition information and careful, precise measurement? Doesn't even need to be just desserts, in fact might even prefer savory dishes to counterbalance all the fantastic cookies I need to try now, courtesy of you and Maida :)
Again, thanks ever so much for your blog;
Sincerely,
Elijah
Hi Jocelyn - thanks! I like peanut butter too and have enjoyed trying a couple of different takes on the peanut butter cookie.
Thanks Nic! I don't think I'd ever had a crunchy peanut butter cookie until I first tried this one, but turns out I love them too!
Hi Elijah - thanks so much! I use some software called Living Cookbook. You enter your recipe, link each ingredient to one in the ingredient database, and then click a button and voila - nutrition info! It's not very expensive and I find it easy to use. I know I've seen some nutrition information on other blogs - the one that comes to mind is Words to Eat By.
That natural style of pb reminds me so much of my mother---I remember how she insisted on buying organic, natural products as much as possible, no matter if it was a wee bit of an inconvenience to stir the separated oil back into the pb!
RYC: About the sage, yes they are tenacious buggers and seem to survive above all else!
Hi Rowena! That's funny - I don't think my mom has ever seen any appeal in organics. In her mind it's a gimic - higher priced but inferior quality (i.e. bug holes, etc.). And I have to admit, if the only organic produce I ever saw was that offered in the grocery store, I'd be of like mind!
These look great! does using whole wheat flour affect how it atste at all?
Hi Jenjen! The cookies don't taste of whole wheat in my opinion. They use whole wheat pastry flour, which I think isn't as coarse as regular ww flour, and the other ingredients (i.e., raw sugar and peanut butter) may mask any textural differences caused by the ww flour.
Hi Cathy! Happen to chance upon yr blog through nic's. Wow..these cookies look great! And its whole wheat too! DO you mind sharing the recipe with me? In Singapore i am not able to get hold of this cookery book. thanks..god bless yr wonderful hands!
In my first visit to your blog, I had a "picture-less" version....
I am glad I came back to check it again, thanks to Lis, from La Mia Cucina
You are now bookmarked, and I am sure I will have a great time with your blog!
Thank you!
Hi Sally! So glad you did come back! Yes, Blogger was doing some maintenance and apparently photos were not viewable for about an hour. Thanks so much for stopping by!
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