
Why?
Why?!
Why have I waited so long into the summer to make these? Everyone who knows me KNOWS that I am a peanut butter freak. I can live off the stuff. I just haven't been baking much with it. I like my peanut butter straight up. Yum...
One day when I got home from work, I had this sudden urge to bake something. And I thought, of course, peanut butter cookies are delicious, really easy to whip up, and require minimal clean-up and hassle. So off I went.
I adapted a recipe from an old September 2008 Food & Wine magazine that I happened to have lying around the kitchen. The recipe was much like the one on the back of the Kraft peanut butter jar (which is a recipe that I didn't really like when I tried it out a while back). However, these cookies turned out really tasty! They're pretty addictive too. I woke up this morning to find only a couple left. When I saw the plate last night, it was still full. I guess someone in my family had the late night munchies. The cookies are nice and soft and slightly chewy. I would have like it to be more chewy though. Maybe I'll up the amount of brown sugar next time. I think I want to increase the amount of rolled oats as well.
Today I'm off downtown for the Taste of the Danforth festival. Since the festival starts at around 6pm tonight, we're probably just going to hang around the East York/Leslieville/Little India area and eat lunch, shop (for cheap produce at Chinatown!), etc.
Peanut Butter Cookies
- 1 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy, your choice. I used smooth because it was what I had at home)
- 1/4 brown sugar
- 1/4 granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp baking soda
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl, mix together all ingredients until well blended and mixed.
3. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving some space inbetween cookies.
4. Bake for about 15 minutes, until lightly browned and fragrant (you can really smell the peanut butter...it makes the whole house smell like it...mmmm).
July 26th was my sister's 20th birthday, which is just another excuse for me to bake a cake. I wanted to make a more complicated cake, but I didn't have enough time! So I settled on making a chocolate buttermilk cake with a white chocolate pastry cream filling. I knew she didn't want anything with fruit in it, so I obviously looked for something chocolatty. I made the filling and the cake one day, and then filled it and let it sit overnight (so that the pastry cream could kind of soak into the cake a bit and let the flavours meld).
So for her birthday, we went out for dinner at Memories of Japan, and then we went for some gelato at Hollywood Gelato. This was my first time there, and it was extremely busy, especially for a Sunday. I walked in and was overwhelmed by all the people and possible flavours. In the end, I chose a scoop of pistachio and a scoop of roasted marshmallow (you can get a max of two flavours for a small cone). The flavours were very strong, and it tasted exactly how it should taste. The pistachio tasted like you were eating pistachios, and the roasted marshmallow tasted like you were eating roasted marshmallows! The gelato was so creamy and light, and the portions were very generous. Make a trip down there if you can!
Back to the cake! It's not the prettiest cake, but it tasted okay. The pastry cream didn't really taste white-chocolatty enough, but it was still a good filling. The chocolate buttermilk cake was very moist and rich. Another successful receipe from Caprial's Desserts (I know, it's as if this is the only cookbook I use)! The pastry cream kind of squished out around the sides when I put on the top of the cake.
Happy (belated) birthday Jessica!