Yet another vegan blog. Obsessed with cookies. Addicted to peanut butter. Fighting for the vegan revolution!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Nuts!

A month ago, I wrote 'pistachios' on my grocery list, which hangs on my fridge. I had a specific recipe that I wanted to try, and I needed pistachios for it. Now, weeks went by, and I finally bought a bag Thursday night (on sale - $2 bucks!). For the life of me I couldn't remember why I wanted them, but I knew I needed them. I thought, thought and over-thought some more about what I was going to use the pistachios for (by the way, pistachios is a super fun word). It's still nagging at me, but in the meantime I decided on another recipe: Nutcase Cookies from My Sweet Vegan. Have I mentioned how much I love this book? I cut the recipe in half and followed as is, only subbing pecans for cashews. I got 18 cookies. They were definitely the most colorful dough I have played with in a while:

Here they are on the sheet waiting.

These cookies are strictly 'party on the outside, business on the inside,' as they aren't overly sweet, but will definitely satisfy a nutty craving. By the way, mine look nothing like the picture in the book. You can see the speckles from the Sucanat. Good crunchy cookie.

Pistachios...

I think my peanut butter addiction has become fairly obvious. If it hasn't, then I'm not trying hard enough. Observe:

This is only a small sample. I really wanted to showcase my love for Peanut Butter & Co. peanut butters. LOVE! (Holy cow! I just noticed they have maple flavored peanut butter. Yowza!) I bought a load of it in these small jars on sale a couple of months ago. I zeroed in on the spicy flavor, The Heat is On. Yes, it's also a song by Glenn Frey, and I have had it stuck in my head all morning. You know, the song from Beverly Hills Cop? Yeah...

I've been wanting to do something special with it, as I can't see myself eating it as I would other peanut butters. I tend to use them in sweets, rather than savories. Inspired by mexican chocolate cookies, I made Spicy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. The recipe is based on the Peanut Butter Cookie recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I tweaked it by using The Heat is On, instead of smooth or crunchy PB, and adding about 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and the absolutely essential chocolate chips. This was for a half batch. I also nixed the egg replacer since I would have only been dealing with enough for half an egg, and used soy creamer instead of s'milk. I was skeptical of the dough because it was wetter than I was used to peanut butter cookie dough being, but it was fine. The cookies spread nicely. I got 15 large cookies. They are actually good! The heat doesn't really kick in until they start to melt in your mouth, then they hit you like they are pushing you out of bed in the middle of the night; you hit the floor, wake up and wonder what the hell happened. And no harm is done. Or something like that.

Very deceiving cookies. They look like average, ordinary chocolate chip cookies. I forgot to criss-cross the tops. Oh, well. My coworkers are in for a surprise tomorrow. Mwhahahahahahahaha!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

oh I so wish I were your coworker right now...
hello, fellow PB addict! I think you've got me beat with your collection right now, though.