PB&J Cookies

My cousin was visiting London this week from Finland and I sewed a few little goodies for his adorable kids, and wanted to send him home with something for his Texan wife Andrea! Andrea has commented a few times on different recipes I've blogged about, saying that she doesn't think she'd like some of them as they sound too sweet. So, I needed to make something that would survive a day in a suitcase, and that wasn't too sweet.

I opened my cupboards and fridge for inspiration and looked no further than the jar of peanut butter! Did I mention she's Texan! DONE! 

I've always heard about Peanut Butter and Jelly from sitcoms growing up, but didn't think anyone actually ever ate them, until our American friends educated us differently last year. As an Australian, it took learning that jelly wasn't actually what we know to be jelly, but more a jam, to start the process of understanding how this could possibly taste any good on a sandwich! I was picturing a great big wobbly mess of jelly lumped on bread smeared with peanut butter.... and whilst the real thing isn't all that different, it certainly is better than I expected! 

So, enter the PB&J cookie (I'm even giving you the word cookie instead of biscuit, gotta make it authentic!). I thought about my good old jam drops and wondered whether adding peanut butter to the biscuit dough would be a good idea or not... but got my answer half way through baking....how good does this batter look?!?! It looked like spun gold! 

I can't say that this recipe will work everytime, as I made it up today and have thus only cooked it the one time, but a little instinct goes a long way, so if it needs more PB or J, go with it!

Ingredients

100g butter

100g peanut butter (crunchy adds a really good texture and, well, crunch)

1 cup caster sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 and 3/4 cup of plain flour

Jam/Jelly of your choice - I used strawberry as "grape jelly" wasn't in my fridge!!!! 

Method:

1. Cream together butter and sugar with electric beaters. It will be a little stiff until you add the peanut butter. 

2. Add the peanut butter and continue to beat until the mixture looks like the spun gold as above!

3. Add the egg and combine well. 

4. Combine the flour and baking powder and gently fold into the mix. 

5. Roll into small balls and make an indent in the top of each one, ready for jam! 

6. Fill each cookie with 1/2 a teaspoon (approx) of jam

7. Bake in a moderate oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

I'll be interested to hear what Andrea thinks of them, and may find a few Yanks to test them out over the weekend too...if any will oblige me that is....