The White Ramekins

food & photography

Peanut Butter Cookies

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Last weekend, while cleaning up my inventory, I found this old jar of crunchy peanut butter, which I last bought for baking those gorgeous golden peanut butter and white chocolate blondies. Voila!!! that jar was still alive and I had a long due request of baking some cookies for my office mates. So I ended up baking these classic crisscross patterned peanut butter cookies. Their sweet and salty flavor was simply so irresistible, that they were a hit among my colleagues.

To make these you need:

140 gm plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
1/2 tsp salt (can skip if your butter is salty)
115 gm butter
165 gm brown sugar (powdered)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
200 gm peanut butter

All you need to do:

Sift together salt, flour, bicarb of soda and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer or hand whisk until light and fluffy. In another bowl, mix egg and vanilla and then gradually beat into butter mixture. Stir in the peanut butter and mix. Stir in the dry ingredients and refrigerate it for 30 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a baking tray. Spoon out rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough and roll into balls. Place the balls on the prepared sheets and press flat with a fork into circles making a crisscross pattern using the tines of the fork. Bake until lightly colored, 12-15 minutes. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool.
And you are ready with a batch of around 30 cookies.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

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The memory of cookies dates back to my childhood, when we used to spend our Sunday morning watching animated series on tv, where in,  a mama gummy bear would be baking chocolate chip cookies for her kiddies. And the ever curious mind of a child remained with an unanswered question, What exactly are these cookies? Are they anyhow having some resemblance to what we call biscuits in India? but, sadly no clue. And those were the days, when we didn’t have The Mighty Google. That question got burried somwhere deep down my memories. And the time came, when I first saw a cookie in an american sandwich chain, Subway. Eureka !!! It appeared to me same as, a biscuit, a small flat baked treat. Cookie is american or Canadian name for a biscuit in britain or for that matter, any english speaking country outside north america. And it set on to my heart for writing a recipe for a cookie as what else could be better than to relive those joyous and magical moments of a childhood. 

Ingredients

115 gm butter at room temperature
50 gm caster sugar
110gm brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
170 gm plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
1 pinch of salt
170 gm chocolate chips
55gm nuts of your choice

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Grease the baking sheet. With an electric mixer cream the butter and two sugars together until light and fluffy. In another bowl mix egg and vanilla and gradually beat into butter and sugar mixture. Sift over flour, bicarb of soda, salt and mix. Add chocolate chips and nuts and mix to combine well. Place heaped teaspoonfuls of the dough on the prepared sheets. Bake until lightly colored, 10-15 minutes. Transfer to rack to cool and your chocolate chip cookies are ready to be enjoyed with a nice cup of hot simmering coffee.