Happy Birthday, Uncle Thor!

There are two ways to do this. 

The First:

The Second:

Of course, by putting that gif at the top of this post and simultaneously making a truly insane amount of cookies, I have effectively done both. So. All right then.

Pictured above, top to bottom, are Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and White Chocolate and Sunflower Seed cookies. A nice mix for a birthday. At least I thought so. I hope I was right. I originally just made PB Choc Chip, but then I was gazing at the baking cupboard, and thought "hmm, well, why the hell not?" and thus White Choc Sunflower was born. So now Uncle Thor gets TWO kids of cookies, which does seem rather festive, does it not?

They're currently in a box covered in silver duct tape being USPS'd to Mount Desert (I think that far north in Maine they are ACTUALLY delivered by seagull?), so I'll find out in a day or so if Beetle Done Good. And in the short term, the LL's got the overflow, since if I sent Uncle Thor ALL of the cookies I've made since Tuesday, they might alert Homeland Security and I'd get my own baking-related satellite or something.

Mind you, given the number of irate phone calls and petitions I've sent over the years on behalf of wolves, seals, national parks, puppies, horses, kittens, the environment, animal testing, vegetarianism, GMOs, horse drawn carriages, museums, drinking water, the ozone layer, and family owned farms, I very probably do already have my own satellite, or at least my very own NSA agent. (to whom I bid at this moment a warm and ironic HELLO.) 

But to the cookies. 

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP

This is a modified version of my own Peanut Butter Shortbread recipe, made slightly gooier so as to retain the chocolate chips once mixed in. I was flipping once again through the Bon Appetit Cookbook and in comparing and contrasting the three PB cookie recipes they had decided to add a few tbs of dark corn syrup to the dough, and also cut the flour by 3/4 of a cup. This is also to offset the fact that I did, OF COURSE, use natural peanut butter, because mark my words, dear reader, Jiff or Skippy or anything similar will never darken my doorstep. 

Herewith:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 entire 16oz jar ALL NATURAL super chunky peanut butter
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3-4 tbs dark corn syrup
• 12 oz chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate this time, but whatever you like) 

Beat peanut butter, butter, and vanilla extract until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat a bit longer. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl. Add half the flour, one of the eggs, the rest of the flour, then the last egg, beating well after each one. Add the corn syrup last, adding less or more depending on how wet you want your dough to be. 

Stir in the chocolate chips. 

Drop spoonfuls on baking sheets, they don't spread that much so you can get a lot on, and bake at 350 degrees for 14-15 minutes, until they're golden and crispy around the bottom. 

The above were the special "chocolate chip free" ones that I made for Mum, because, you guessed it, she just doesn't think cookies as nice as my peanut butter ones need chocolate chips but I'm sure Uncle Thor will like them I just don't see anything wrong with plain peanut butter but no it doesn't matter I suppose because it's not my birthday it's his ok fine.

These are the ones with huge hunks of Milk Chocolate in them. To each her own. 

 When I said "crispy around the bottom", I think it's the corn syrup talking, they actually get a crumbly shell of burnt sugar around the edges. It bubbles on the baking sheet, but once you let it cool it becomes this sort of delicate halo of sweetened peanut butter. I'm telling you. They look wicked. 

MOVING ON

WHITE CHOCOLATE SUNFLOWER SEED

I am a firm believer, when making any kind of "chip" cookie, of using the recipe on the back of the chip packet. I have yet to go wrong with it.

I realise now that I've typed that, that I may be doomed for life. Oops.

The chip packet in question here was a packet of Ghirardelli White Chocolate Chips (apparently a few months ago I decided to effectively buy stock in Ghirardelli chocolate chips? I have SO MANY PACKAGES OF THEM) and the recipe on the back was "White Chocolate Macadamia Nut." I decided to use Sunflower Seeds and hope for the best. a) ew, Macadamia, why b) I only had sunflower seeds, c) sunflower seeds, though complete anathema to me, are healthy. Uncle Thor is a tour guide in a national park. THE MAN LIKES A HEALTHY COOKIE.

I threw the packet away yesterday so here is a link to the recipe on food.com, if you need it. I lowered the white sugar by 1/2 a cup, because white chocolate is sweet enough to count for at least 1/2 a cup of sugar on its own, and 1 1/2 cups plus 1 cup of brown just seemed like A LOT of sugar. I am sure you could substitute agave or honey or something like that if you wanted to go more the "healthy sunflower seed cookie" route.

This is another one that, upon Mum's arrival home: oh those smell nice what kind are they oh white chocolate no don't be unfriendly I know you didn't make them for me I just don't like white chocolate I think it's too sweet no don't give them ALL to Thor I might want to try one what else is in them oh sunflower seeds I didn't know they were that small I thought sunflower seeds were bigger are you sure they're ok no I'm sure they're fine ok I'm leaving now.

Mum didn't taste these last night, so the LL's are going to be my first wall of defense. They will tell me if I need to scrap the recipe and send a drone to intercept the seagull postman on his way to Uncle Thor's house. I was a bit worried that they might be too sweet? But macadamia nuts and sunflower seeds both have the same Omega-3-heaviness, and at least sunflower has a crunchiness (and maybe even a bit of salt) that macadamia doesn't have, so in my head it worked out. 

I realise there is sometimes a huge disparity between "Beetle's Head" and "Reality." I hope this wasn't one of those times.

This is the box the LL's got this afternoon. Sharing the Birthday Love, is what I'm doing here, dear reader. Sharing the Birthday Love.

Because when you're named after the Norse God of Thunder and are simultaneously an accomplished yogi, a damn good bass in the Acadia Choir, the best mountain climbing buddy in existence, and the guy who always puts the seat warmers on for me even in July, your birthday should be celebrated as a THING.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE THOR! 

Love,

Beetle