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.

Thursday's thursdaes (and other things)

After work today I didn’t really feel like going for a swim. But Matt, my husband, said “let’s go now” and since he was showing unusual enthusiasm I thought I’d better not make any excuses.

My previous swim had been on Monday and had been cut short by a small boy vomiting in the pool. So today I was of the opinion that if I was going to make the effort to get into the pool I should make up for that short swim with a long one. Matt was not of the same opinion and I noticed at about 80 lengths that he had got out. I am a very antisocial swimmer and swim with an MP3 player so am basically oblivious to what is going on around me. This proved to be hazardous on Monday when I failed to notice that the lifeguards had cleared the pool following the vomiting incident until one of them tapped me on the head. Fortunately Matt was still in the changing room after I had made my 100 length target so I was not forced into even more physical exertion with a walk home.

It was quite late by the time we got in, but after all that exercise I felt pretty hungry. Something quick and filling was called for: jacket potatoes or pasta. (We have a microwave with a jacket potato function which kind of half-microwaves-half-bakes the potatoes so that they are done really nicely in about a quarter of an hour.) Since we had no jacketing potatoes pasta it would be.

I made a quick kind of bolognese sauce. In a household that doesn’t eat meat it will only ever be a kind of bolognese sauce. Today’s variant was:

- A large onion, 2 sticks of celery, 3 carrots - all chopped up and fried until soft. Sometimes I also add mushrooms and / or peppers here but we had none. I would also usually put in garlic, but we only had smoked garlic. When I went to get some for chopping it was quite evident that it was past its best. Which is unsurprising, I suppose, given that I’d imported it from the Isle of Wight last August.

- Vegetarian mince, added until browned a bit. We had half a bag in the freezer which was ideal.

- A tin of plum tomatoes. It wasn’t until after I’d added them that I realised that they weren’t chopped. Usually I use scissors in the tin to chop non-chopped tinned tomatoes but today I had to undertake the slightly trickier task of chopping in the pan. The tricky bit is avoiding the non-stick surface of the pan.

- Some (probably about 100ml) red wine (which I rinsed the tomato tin out with). A spoonful of vegetable stock powder. A spoonful of yeast extract. Some Worcestershire sauce could have replaced either one of those. I have found that using all three on one occasion is excessive.

You can simmer away for quite a long time if you like, but hunger dictated that it would be a less mature kind of bolognese this evening. Matt kept an eye on it and got the pasta ready (fusilli today) while I made some cookies.

These were very simple: butter, sugar, flour, egg, vanilla and chocolate. The recipe said that I should mix it with a wooden spoon but I figured I would use the electric whisk. I have been having some problems with my elbow (if it’s possible to get tennis elbow from swimming I think that might be it) so wanted to avoid manual labour if possible. The electric whisk was fine. 

The main hazard I found in the preparation of the cookies was the presence of a small dog. We are taking care of my mother-in-law’s Yorkshire terrier, Fred, for a week. I have been led to understand that dogs should not eat chocolate - apparently it can kill them. The chocolate for the cookies had to be “roughly chopped”. Fred is always around your feet when there’s anything to do with food going on and the process of chocolate chopping inevitably results in some chocolate dust finding its way to the floor. Matt said not to worry too much and pointed out the time, Christmas 2011 I think, when he managed to get his way into and lick away a not insignificant quantity of premium dark chocolate. He was fine then and 2 hours after today’s chocolate consumption seems to be none the worse for it.

The cookies baked while we ate dinner. I wanted to put some cheese on it but the small amount of (open) remaining cheddar had grown a fur coat so I thought better of it. There will be some lucky birds getting that cheese tomorrow. Rather than opening a new cheese Matt challenged me to eat dinner cheeseless. And do you know? I don’t think it was any the worse for the absence of dairy. I was somewhat shocked when I returned from the kitchen having removed the cookies from the oven to find Matt feeding Fred veggie bolognese from a fork.

Since the cookies would have to cool before we could go to be and it would be nice to digest the pasta bit before bed I decided to have a bit of pudding – very rare for a week night. I’d bought some strawberries a few days ago (out of season I know but they smelt lovely) and it was about time that they were eaten up. I’m going away for the weekend and it would be unlikely that Matt would choose them himself. My first thought had been to serve them with some spray cream but as I was rinsing them I had the idea of making strawberry sundaes: the above with the addition of some vanilla ice-cream and sprinkles. I would have added some fruity sauce too if we had some. Our ice-cream thursdaes were devoured.

The cookies did the usual thing of spreading out whilst baking and joining up to each other. I refuse to use more baking trays to prevent this so my cookies are likely to always be slightly non-round. Most of the cookies are for sharing with my friends this weekend but one of them broke in the process of removal from the baking tray so it seemed only prudent to test it. Matt approved, but he generally does of sweet things.

They’ve packed up nicely into a two tier sandwich box (I partially chose cookies for ease of transportation); and now I just await the verdict of a broader jury.