Now. Let me make something clear. The Hallmark Channel might have decided that it's Christmas. The same goes for the Lifetime Channel. As far as I can tell, they decided it was Christmas the second Halloween was over. When we were in Maine I was doing the "toothbrush in one hand, remote in the other" thing and came upon one of those oh so originally named films . . . A Wish for Christmas, A Puppy for Christmas, A Bride for Christmas, A Tree for Christmas, A Family for Christmas, A Snorkel for Christmas, A Platypus for Christmas, A Dump Truck for Christmas, A Shoe for Christmas, A Pile of Much for Christmas . . . it goes on. Point is, they were already showing movies.
THIS DOES NOT MEANT IT'S OK TO WATCH THEM.
It's ok to watch Christmas movies WHEN IT'S CHRISTMAS. As in AFTER THANKSGIVING. This is a fundamental rule. If you want to know the exact moment when it becomes ok, I'll tell you. The exact moment is when Santa appears at the end of the Macy's Day Parade. THEN, AND ONLY THEN, can you commence your saccharine overload.
Btw, please don't think I'm being disparaging. Those films are AMAZING. I watched so many last year due to stress of imminent-life-uprooting-and-omg-what-am-I-doing that I think I actually sneezed tinsel at one point. Particular favourite was Help for the Holidays mostly because I kept waiting for Moon Bloodgood (playing an elf sent down from the North Pole, natch) to reprise her role from Firefly and start killing people with her bare hands. That never happened, incidentally. Shame.
So. When I baked cookies last weekend, I'm sure I don't need to tell you that I was NOT watching a Christmas movie. What I WAS watching was the never-ending Harry Potter Movie Marathon that, honestly, if you turn on Starz right now, there's never anything else playing. It's just All Harry Potter, All the Time.
If you can think of a better thing to do whilst making Chunky Peanut Cookies than watching Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, then by all means . . .
CHUNKY PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES MADE WATCHING HARRY POTTER FOR THE BILLIONTH AND ONE TIME
This is a tweak on my own Peanut Butter Cookie recipe to include a few generous handfuls of dry roasted peanuts. Basically, I took what is essentially Peanut Butter Shortbread and made it even crunchier and peanutier.
Exactly.
CHUNKY PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
INGREDIENTS
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 stick butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 16 oz. jar of creamy, all natural, peanut butter
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 - 1 1/2 cups dry roasted, unsalted peanuts
Shape the dough into balls with your hands and place on baking sheets (they don't really spread out so you can put a lot on one sheet) and flatten them with a fork to create that essentially hatch. We all know it's not a peanut butter cookie unless it has hatching on the top.
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| Note that I went slightly avant-garde this time and opted for the SINGLE crosshatch. |
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| It was a bold move, but I think it was worth the risk. |
Bake them at 375 for about 10 minutes. If you like your cookies extra crunchy, as Mum does, you can leave them in a few minutes longer. They'll be nice and golden brown on the tops when they're done.
BEETLE NOTES
When you use peanut butter that doesn't have partially hydrogenated industrial waste in it, your cookies turn out super crumbly. Fact of life.
Under normal circumstances I use crunchy peanut butter because I want the cookies to have a nice texture. But this time, because I was adding actual whole peanuts, I opted for creamy. It definitely made the dough a bit stickier, and that helped when it came time to shape the dough balls. They flattened pretty well with a fork too, and didn't really become their crumbly crunchy selves until the baking was done. In the past just the act of hatching them has made them disintegrate on the baking sheet, which, although they still taste nice, they do actually just resemble peanut butter crumbs.
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| Holding up nicely. |
When you add the flour, be prepared to stop a little bit before it's all used up. This is where you can control the consistency of the cookies, and where you can make them stickier or drier to your liking. I aimed for a dough wetness-quotient that allowed it to stick together completely in the mixing bowl, but that had very little give.
A solid mass of sticky peanut butter deliciousness if you will.
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| Like so. |
By the time Harry had competed in his first Quidditch match and had escaped Argus Filch in the restricted section of the library, these were done. Fast, easy, nutty, and comforting. Just what you need if it's raining outside and you can't think of anything better than moving directly without stopping onto Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
I will only add here that it was announced by some scientific journal or other that eating a handful of nuts every day decreases your chances of dying by 20%.
Seriously.
To quote Albus Dumbledore from The Order of the Pheonix: "There is a time for speech-making, and this is not it. Tuck in!"
Final Beetle Note:
Two INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT dates are coming this week.
1. Tomorrow (!!!!!) is the 50th Anniversary episode of DOCTOR WHO. I am making a TARDIS PIE. I will hopefully be able to post that sucker on Monday. It's going to be . . . hahah . . . AN ADVENTURE IN TIME AND SPACE oh god I'm so funny.
2. Duh. THANKSGIVING. As I'm sure you can imagine, the menus are colour-coded for course and day of prep, the first wave of shopping was completed this morning, and things are gearing up as only an OCD cook can make them. But if you don't hear from me until after it's over, don't be surprised. I'm either up to my ears in Wild Rice Stuffing (which wouldn't be a bad way to go, honestly) or (see above) I've been sucked into a space-time vortex. Either way, I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
Happy Friday, dear reader!
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