The Curse of OCD .....Crunchy Peanut Butter & Dark Chocolate Cookies

Faced with a bank holiday weekend I had promised myself that I would spend an afternoon giving the kitchen cupboards a long overdue sort out, yes life in the fast lane for me and clearly harbouring a deep seated desire to be more like Bree Vandercamp. I'd put it off for 2 days seeing friends, going to a movie, picking up a book I'd been meaning to read for ages and over walking the poor dog.  

But on Saturday it rained, stuck in doors there was was no excuse and secretly I do have a little bit of OCD in me.  Whilst I think housework is a thankless task, I find something very satisfying about re-arranging and throwing out, then standing back admiring how neatly stacked everything is and at last  cake stand or slow cooker can now be used again because I don't need to empty the entire contents of a cupboard onto the kitchen floor to reach it.

If it was out of date I binned it.... I scrubbed and re-arranged and found myself left with one solitary annoying jar of crunchy peanut butter - still in date and unopened but when am I ever going to use it?  

You see me and peanut butter don't really see eye to eye - I'm not a fan! I have never understood the attraction of plastering it on toast and then having it sticking to the roof of your mouth like polyfilla....so not wanting to waste I thought I must be able to find something to do with it to make it more palatable for my taste.

I figured that used in a biscuit and combined with a dark chocolate the flavour would be more subtle and that  a crunchy peanut butter would give a more interesting texture.  I trawled through my faithful stack of recipe book and settled one from http://hummingbirdbakery.com/cookbooks/the-hummingbird-bakery-cookbook/ 

I halved the suggested amounts to make 12;

Ingredients:

112g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
100g light brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract
120g crunchy peanut butter
170g plain flour
1 1/4 teaspoons bicarbonate soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
40g plain chocolate, roughly chopped (personally Green & Blacks dark cooking chocolate)

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees C (non fan assisted)

Put butter & sugars in the mixer with paddle attachment and cream until light & fluffy.  Add the egg and mix well, then turning the mixer to a slow speed and the vanilla extract and peanut butter.

Next add the flour (sifted), bicarb & salt - continue mixing until you obtain a smooth dough.  Finally stir in the chocolate by hand.  Arrange 6 equal amounts of the cookie dough on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and ensure you allow space for spreading.  Bake for approximately 10 minutes until golden brown on the edges and quite flat.  Leave on the tray to cool slightly before moving to a cooling rack.

These have gone down a storm this week with everyone who has popped round, myself included suprisingly - soft & chewy, great with a cup of coffee.  Suddenly peanut butter tastes good, it's not dry and when cut through a cookie dough with the melted dark chocolate it's a completely different taste.  

One jar put to good use and me and peanut butter in a happier place and I'm not resenting it taking up space in my kitchen now!