Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies.... need I say more?

Peanut butter.

Peanuts.

Mix them with sugar and butter and stuff.

Bake them... yum.

Next week: Chocolate-Ginger Leaves and Acorns, p. 232

Pfeffernussen

I had never heard of pfeffernussen until I met my husband, but apparently they're a traditional German/Swedish Christmas cookie. His grandma makes literally buckets of pfeffernussen every year, and they're really good. Her cookies are tiny, sweet, lightly spiced and really hard/crunchy. Excellent with a cup of coffee or tea. I decided to try Martha's to see how they match up. It's a pfeffernuss vs. pfeffernuss cage match, if you will.



One of the big differences between the two recipes, is the addition of molasses in Martha's recipe, which, I think is excellent. Molasses is one of those things that I never think I like until I have it again... It's odd. If you ask me if I like molasses, I'd probably say no, but if you gave me molasses cookies, I'd think they were swell. I guess I'm just fickle.

Also, Martha calls for fresh ground spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, alspice, cloves, black pepper), which is a great idea. I will probably use fresh spices next time I make the regular pfeffernussen.



Also, Martha wants you to roll the still-warm cookies in powdered sugar. While this makes the cookies look pretty, it's a pain and doesn't do much to make the cookies better. I'd probably skip it in the future.

In all, I like these, but they're not what I think of when I think pfeffernussen. They're too soft and too molasses-y. If I made them again, I'd call them something else. But, they are very tasty, either way.



Next week: Peanut Butter Cookies, p. 184

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

So... no post last weekend. I have no excuse, just laziness and forgetfulness. But I'll make it up to you this week with peanut butter swirl brownies. These brownies could make up for anything. Seriously, these are brownies that literally begin with a big bowl of chocolate and butter. Talk about a good start.



The 'filing' (which mostly goes on top of the brownies) is mostly peanut butter. Interestingly enough, neither myself nor my husband really eat peanut butter. It's not that we don't like it or are allergic or anything, we just don't eat PB&J's or other such nonsense. And because of that, I don't remember the last time we bought peanut butter. Despite this, I found three opened and mostly empty jars of peanut butter in our fridge. And magically enough, they had exactly the amount of peanut butter I needed for the brownies. It was fate.



Once the batter and filling are finished, you are supposed to layer the two and swirl them together with a knife. I don't know if my batter was stiffer than hers, but it really didn't want to nicely 'marble'. It really ended up more globby than anything else. A tasty glob, but a glob none the less.



These brownies are awesome! Really awesome. They're so rich that you need to cut a 9x9 pan into 16 tiny brownies, or you'll make yourself sick. The peanut butter filling was kind of flaky and crumbly, like the filling of Rese's Peanut Butter Cups. The brownie parts are dense and very chocolate-y. Serious Yum. You should make them.


Next Week: Pfeffernussen p. 131