Sunday 12 February 2012

Peanut and Chocolate Chip Biscuits


Peanut and Chocolate Chip Biscuits


Peanut is one of my favourite nuts. I have a rather peculiar taste to peanuts because unlike cashews they do not seem very inviting however, once I have a few of them, I could do with more and more. I was watching a cookery program on the tele and it was about making some dishes for the lunch box. The lady cooking mentioned that peanuts are so not desired by children and I was quite surprised by that. When I was a child I used to wait for the roasted peanut vendor who would have a sand bath in which he would roast the peanuts and make a ringing noise using his ladle to alert us of his arrival. I would scramble for change and buy some and sit in the balcony or near the gate and munch. Now though it is usually me that has to roast the peanuts. I do not stock roasted peanuts because that way I can decide I want to have it roasted or boiled. I realised I like peanuts in biscuits and wanted to make it attractive to my wee one as well so combined chocolate chips. Wee ones cannot whole nuts so when given in powder form it is safe and also ensures these healthy bits go in. My wee one was responsible for putting the choco chips on and I insisted that he does not press it hard into the biscuit but later realised that way the biscuits actually looked even better. One of the learning for me in this baking episode was that in general we look for browned edges for biscuits and that is when you know they are done. For this biscuit, browned edges are not enough, the whole biscuit should brown so it is crispy else it will be more like a cookie with edges alone brown. Here is the recipe...

½ cup roasted peanuts, powdered
1 ½ cups self raising whole meal flour
100g butter
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup chocolate chips (more or less as you prefer)
¼ cup milk

Bring together powdered peanuts, flour and sugar. Add the butter, mix and add milk as required to make a dough that will hold together while held in fist but not soft like chapatti dough. Refrigerate this dough for atleast 30 minutes else it could be sticky

Pinch small balls of the dough, make balls and press between your palm to make the cookies. Put some chocolate chips on them and gently press them down

Bake in preheated oven at 180degC for 8-10 minutes, until brown.

Cool completely and serve


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