Peanut Sandies

As much as I love Ottolenghi’s savory recipes for their dynamic flavor profiles, so much do I love his sweet recipes for their subtlety and finesse. Just like his Oat Cranberry Almond Cookies, these Peanut Sandies have flavor without being in your face. They perfectly balance butter with peanut, sweet with salty, not one element outshining the other. The texture is delicate and crumbles away in your mouth. They are, in a word, a delight.

The recipe itself was dead easy, although the ingredient list was undoubtedly initially in weights because the carry over to measuring cups is a little clumsy. I do highly recommend a kitchen scale for all baking, but you should be OK without one if that’s your case.

I made these cookies pretty thin, a little because I wanted to stretch the dough a bit further but mostly because I’m rubbish at estimating thickness - and even if I had a decent grasp on small increments of height - or had thought to grab a ruler - I’m not much better at rolling dough out evenly to a specific thickness. But I just kept an eye on them as they baked and adjusted the time as necessary (which was significantly less, for what it’s worth.) Being so thin they were very light, almost like crisps. I liked it.

I also coated these with the thinnest swipe of chocolate. Peanut and chocolate is an obvious and obviously amazing combination, but I didn’t want to detract from the cookie with a thick coating. It dressed it up a bit and made it really popular with the kids, but I probably prefer them plain and simple. With coffee, obv.

peanut sandies

makes 2 dozen or so, depending on thickness

Ingredients:

• mounded 1/2 cup (90g) unsalted roasted peanuts

• 1 cup + 1 Tbsp (150g) flour, divided

• 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp (125g) unsalted butter, softened

• 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp (50g) powdered sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/4 tsp baking powder

• turbinado sugar

• chocolate chips or chocolate candy coating, optional

Instructions:

1. In a food processor, blitz together the peanuts and about 1/3 cup (50g) of the flour until the nuts are finely chopped, then set aside.

2. In a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and powdered sugar for a few minutes until lightened and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat to combine. Sift in the flour, salt, and baking powder, and beat on low just briefly. Add the nuts/flour mixture and beat just until combined. Gently and deftly, use your hand or a spatula to knead the dough a bit against the side of the bowl to bring it together, then turn out onto plastic wrap, flatten into a disc, and chill for at least an hour to firm up.

3. Preheat the oven to 375. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

4. Roll the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper to 1/4 inch thickness. (I rolled mine closer to 1/8 inch thick.) Cut out into circles or whatever shape you prefer and transfer to one of the prepared sheets. If the dough is sticky and hard to handle, simply pop the pan into your freezer for a minute or two to firm up. Sprinkle the cookies with turbinado sugar, then bake for 10-15 minutes depending on thickness. They should be golden all over and browning at the edges. Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes, then transfer to wire cooling sheets. Re-roll the dough scraps and repeat the process until you’ve used all the dough.

5. When the cookies are cool, melt some chocolate chips or chocolate-flavored candy coating and either drizzle or spread over the cookies. Or serve them with hot chocolate to the same effect. Or use them instead of graham crackers for s’mores - that would be amazing. Or spread them with jelly for a twist on pb&j. Or just eat them plain. With coffee, obv.

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