Good Bad Cookies

There are times when life gets in the way of pretty much anything else. Visitors, and lots of fun, and travel, and lots of fun, and trying to clean your house up into the no-really-this-is-how-we-live-our-children-don’t-make-mess state required for potential buyers to be able to consider living there gets in the way of just cooking dinner, much less writing about it. Now that the house is tidy and we seem to have tracked down all the odors emanating from behind furniture and all the,’ Oops, I appear to be stuck,’ patches have been scraped off the floor and we have returned from what seemed like a cross country road trip which was, in reality, just a few hundred miles up the coast, and our fridge is empty of leftovers, I am back in cooking mode. At least until my new, but not particularly successful, knitting hobby takes over.

Shortly after New Year and in the midst of my determination to not resolve to do anything, I realized that I had to do something with the jar of a certain chocolate-hazelnut spread that someone, silly person, had put in Stephen’s Christmas stocking. Left on its own, it was going to meet no better end than a teaspoon straight into someone’s waiting, and knowing better, gob. At least if I baked it up into something else, it would disperse the no-goodness and it could be more easily shared around.

I made the cookies but I couldn’t post them, too many resolutions would be swearing them off. Something this bad but good needed an audience. So, I waited and, well, I have waited long enough. It is February people (at least it feels that way at home, I am told), and you all need something to do on your snow days (I miss snow days, I really, really do). Plus, you will deserve them after all that shoveling (I miss shoveling, really I do). Plus, if I had some snow to shovel, I would then deserve to eat more of them.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Hazelnut Spread Cookies

1 1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut spread

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Beat peanut butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla together. 

Mix flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl. Mix in to wet ingredients.

When wet and dry are fully mixed, stir in the chocolate chips and chocolate hazelnut spread.

Roll into balls and place on baking sheet lined with parchment. Flatten with a floured fork. 

Bake for about 10 minutes. Careful, these are pretty easy to overbake.

Cool.

Makes about 24.

Will the Real Edible Kind Please Stand Up?

When I was child, I once ate a horse chestnut. I remember thinking that people sang about, 'chestnuts roasting over an open fire.' I figured that they should probably taste fine freshly fallen off the tree as well. Little did I know that Aesculus hippocastanum is not to be confused with Castanea, also known as The Edible Kind. The bitter, drying taste I faced left me wondering what all the Christmas carol fuss was about. It wasn't until I was about twenty years old that I finally braved up to taste the 'real' thing. But, this isn't about The Edible Kind.

A week or so ago, I replied to a tweet describing the cupcake menu for the day at Nomélie Cupcakes. I asked what the heck a 'buckeye' was. Her reply was: @nsbonnielass a choc cupcake w/pb cream cheese filling dipped in ganache topped w/swirl of pb frosting http://tinyurl.com/2g4xqom. I followed the link and realized, 'they're conkers.' But, candy conkers.

So, I read a little about it, and thought of my husband and his love of peanut butter. I thought of his even greater love for chocolate coated peanut butter. I thought of his love for conkers. Really, still, in his fifth decade, the search for the perfect conker can easily double the length of an autumn hike. And, I made some peanut butter conkers because, as patiently as I wait, the real ones still haven't started to fall off the trees here and I fancied a bowl of conkers or horse chestnuts or buckeyes, whatever you choose to call them, for the centre of our table. 

I read some of the recipes following the link above and most seemed a little bit too full of stuff I don't consider to be food like wax. And, some things that I had never heard of like honey margarine. And, things that seemed redundant like peanut butter cups. One of the recipes seemed fairly reasonable save for the fact that, made in the quantities prescribed, I would have wound up with way too many of the little tasties. 

I went out got some of the bad, but oh-so-good, sort of creamy peanut butter for these. I figured with a recipe like this, there is no point trying to be virtuous. The original recipe called for margarine and I used butter. I did keep the shortening in the chocolate coating only because we had some shortening left over from a bird seed project we have been working on and, as I said above, with a recipe like this, there is no point trying to be virtuous.

Conkers adapted from a recipe tested by Carla Hall who is possibly a member of the Mid-Ohio Boogie Club (makes 30)

400 grams confectioner's sugar

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 ounces chocolate chips

2 tablespoons shortening

Mix sugar, peanut butter, butter and vanilla together. Chill for an hour.

Form into 30 conker/horse chestnut/buckeye shaped balls and place on a tray or plate. Chill for an hour.

Melt chocolate and shortening in a heavy bottomed saucepan over low heat or in a double boiler. Stir until all chocolate is melted. Cool until it is about body temperature.

Using a toothpick, dip each conker in the chocolate and place on lined tray or plate. When all are dipped smooth the toothpick holes closed with a wet fingertip. Chill until firm.

Keep in refrigerator or freezer until you are ready to eat them.