Peanut Cookies for the New Year

Over the holidays, a friend of my moms sent her about ten pounds of raw peanuts from her home town.  So far, we have roasted them, salt and peppered them and mixed them with chocolate, marshmallows, and oreos to make a Rocky Road type chocolate bark (Yum!).  Even after all of this, we still have A LOT of peanuts!  As I was looking through some recipes I found a few for Peanut Cookies to celebrate Chinese New Year and the year of the Rabbit. What better use for some fresh raw peanuts then some cookies!  And better yet, cookies that symbolize longevity... Albeit, longevity doesn't seem to be an issue in my family but a little extra help can't hurt!

These cookies are on the crumbly side, but for me that is just a good excuse to eat them in one bite!

Enjoy! And HAPPY NEW YEAR!

+Laurain

  

 Ingredients:

• 2 1/2  cups raw peanuts
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• pinch of salt 
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
• 2 egg yolks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

Once oven is heated, spread raw peanuts onto sheet pan on roast for 20 minutes.  Set peanuts aside to cool.  Turn oven down to 325 degrees.

When they are cool enough, finely grind 2 cups of the peanuts in a spice mill, a little at a time (the rest of the peanuts will be used to top the cookies). Combine ground peanuts, sugar, flour and salt in a bowl.  Add oil and stir with a spoon. Finish combining ingredients, mixing by hand until dough is crumbly but can be formed into a ball.  

Using a tablespoon, scoop out dough and form into balls about the size of a cherry.  Place on baking sheet, lined with parchment paper, about 1 inch apart. Top each cookie with one peanut half from the batch that were roasted earlier. After each cookies has been topped, brush on beaten egg yolk. 

Bake in 325 degree oven for 25 minutes.  Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan.  Once completely cooled, store cookies in an air tight container.

Black Bottom Pecan Pie

What a wonderful time of year is is! As the weather gets colder it is once again time to enjoy more warm, hearty meals. Last year while discussing with my mother-in-law what I could bring for Thanksgiving, we discovered that none of the desserts on the usual menu include chocolate! Now as you may know, chocolate is one of my favorite ingredients! I took up the cause immediatley and began to search for a Thanksgiving appropriate desert with chocolate. I eventually came across Saveur's Black Bottom Pecan Pie recipe and could not get over what a great idea it was. A classic fall or winter dessert with a chocolate twist! I made this last year to rave reviews and would like to share it with you now. It is very easy to convert this recipe to a lactose free one by using soy margarine instead of butter and your favorite lactose free chocolate chips.

xoxo Marisa

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Black-Bottom-Pecan-Pie

Chocolate Bark

In deciding what cookies to make for the holidays this year, we came across a recipe in Food Network Magazine for Chocolate Bark.  Neither of us had ever made chocolate bark before but there were so many possibilities that we couldn't pass this one up.  The first batch we tried was dark chocolate with dried figs, smoked almonds and salt.  It sounds odd, I know, but it was really good... It definitely opened our eyes to the possibility of many different combinations.  

Here is the basic recipe from Food Network.  The concept is great and it really is as easy as it looks.

There are so many different combinations that you could try, so to make it a little easier, we wanted to share the combinations we tried with you...  

 Here are some photos of our ingredients:

 

Dark Chocolate with Figs and Smoked Almonds:

Semi-Sweet Chocolate with Soft Peppermints and Peppermint Jo Jos (from Trader Joe's):

 

 Dark Chocolate (70%) with Cherries and Pecans:

As you can see, the combinations are endless.  You can even sprinkle some red pepper flakes over the top for an added spice.  We found that using a Pound Plus Chocolate bar from Trader Joes was perfect for the sheet pan we used. These are a great treat for the holidays and can be made dairy and gluten free so that makes them even better!

We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!  

*Laurain and Marisa 

Chocolate Cherry Cookies

I found this recipe a few weeks ago and since then, have been asked to make them again for at least three different occasions. Actually, just this afternoon Marisa requested them as a snack for our road trip next week! When I first came across the recipe, I wasn't sure if I would like them. I am not a fan of raisins in cookies (something about the texture once they are cooked) and I wasn't sure if the cherries would turn me off as well. They didn't. The cherries did not become mushy and the combination of the cherries and the dark chocolate is really great! They're not overly sweet and are seriously good.

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Basil

As the summer comes to an end, one question we have around here is 'What should we do with all the basil??' There is, of course, a simple answer to this question... Pesto! I must admit it is always disheartening when you start out with what seems like a ridiculous amount of basil and it ends up with, well not so much pesto. But it is still so worth it. We used some freshly made pesto as a spread and topped it with roasted tomatoes (also from the garden!) and goat cheese. It can't get much better than that!

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