Thursday's cookies

I was making a somewhat unexpected and somewhat sombre trip eastwards. This would involve seeing friends and I thought that a gift of some baking (to both the sombre and non-sombre parts) would probably be appropriate (although I was unsure about the appropriateness for the sombre part).

What I decided that I wanted to cook was something featuring peanut butter as I had a fairly good idea that this would go down with well with all my hosts. I had cooked some peanut butter cookies a while ago for Matt's workmates (they were not universally well received due the nut allergy issue), but was not entirely satisfied with them so wanted to try a different recipe. The previous batch had been tasty enough but were a bit too crispy – I wanted something a bit chewier (this is unusual because usually I like crispy things). The solution I envisaged would involve jam. I would try to recreate the classic peanut butter and jam on toast, but within a cookie. I found a recipe along these lines (it was actually for peanut butter and “jelly” cookies but I refuse to refer to jam as jelly, even within a recipe that is probably American by concept).

I started off by making the cookie dough, fairly straightforward and only requiring one bowl which was pleasing. I didn't have enough crunchy peanut butter so had to top up 40g with smooth and I didn't have any dark brown muscovado sugar. The recipe said to use a combination of this and caster sugar but I figured that if I used all soft brown sugar this would sort of make the average.

You were supposed to bake the bake all the cookies and then sandwich two together with seedless raspberry jam. This was going to require deviation. I was adamant that I wanted to include the jam in the bake. We didn't have any raspberry jam and, even if we did, seedless jam is something that seems almost morally wrong to me. After deliberation I opted for my mum's gooseberry jam:

• This is my preferred jam to go with peanut butter on toast
• I fancied its chances as the most adhesive of the jams available to me, which would be important if it was to be successfully integrated into the bake

I decided that I would sandwich the layers together pre-baking, which would hopefully facilitate successful transport. I'd used the roll into balls and squish with a fork method to form the cookies so there were convenient grooves in which the jam could be applied. I resisted the temptation to pile on loads of jam, having enough foresight to realise that it would just pour out and make a horrible sticky mess so that I wouldn't be able to get the cookies off of the baking tray.

Due to the increased mass per unit compared to the recipe (mine were of course by now double decker cookies) I increased the cooking time slightly – I wanted chewy but I didn't want raw. I took them out of the oven when they were starting to go golden. A trick I have found with baking cookies is that they harden up a bit after you've removed them from the oven, so not to worry if they seemed too soft to start with. First impressions were good but we'd have to wait until they'd cooled for a taste test – tongue burnt via hot jam is to be avoided.

I was on a roll now and thought that I would augment these slightly experimental peanut butter cookies with a batch of tried and tested chocolate melting moments – my granny's recipe. Probably my favourite of all the things she used to bake. Therefore slackery wasn't in order, just a conversion from ounces to grams (I don't get on too well with imperial) and maybe a bit more cocoa powder than is traditional. Granny would often melt some chocolate on the top of each one and finish off with a cherry, but I didn't have time for that last night. So maybe I was a bit more lazy than slack, but I did the rolling them in oats thing. I resisted the temptation to try one of these – knowing full well that this is a recipe for guaranteed deliciousness. But I did put one by for Matt.

Just before bed we shared one of the peanut butter / jam sandwich cookies. This too met my requirements for deliciousness. I just hope that my hosts like them.