I love peanut butter and could, and sometimes do, eat it straight from the jar.
I’m a purist so I don’t really want to spread it on toast and, as I found from experimenting with various cookie recipes, I don’t even want chocolate fighting with the flavour.
In the quest for the perfect peanut butter biscuit, I first tried making sweet and salty peanut biscuits from Nigella’s Domestic Goddess. I’d been wanting to try these for years and finally got round to it with the salted peanuts left over from my peanut praline experiments (see my Instagram feed @hollyspinny for more about that).
The flavour wasn’t nearly peanutty enough for me but the texture was light and crumbly so I’ll come back to it with some different flavours.
Next, I made again the strange beasts that are flourless peanut butter cookies. The recipe is another of Nigella’s – this time from Simply Nigella – and they used nearly a jar of peanut butter, plus an egg, chocolate chips and not much else. The texture was soft and chewy but the peanut butter flavour strangely muted, given how much was in them!!!
And I have to say, I prefer my peanut butter cookies without chocolate chips so the search continued for the perfect recipe …..
Years ago, my mum made a batch of peanut butter biscuits, packed them into a lovely little round box and brought them down to London when I lived there and we were having a family get-together. The recipe came from a children’s cookery book. They went in a matter of seconds and I loved them so much, my mum sent me a photocopy of the recipe in my birthday card (along with a note telling me to not try to make some before I went on holiday – she knows me so well!)
I wasn’t sure how they would stack up against fancier, more involved recipes but they are the clear winner for me. I prefer smooth peanut butter to crunchy and I don’t bother to brush with egg and top with more peanut pieces so the recipe is even easier than the original. The fact they contain oats makes me feel mildly virtuous eating them too.
They are so crumbly, they fill your mouth with sweet peanut butter deliciousness. And they really are child’s play to make. Peanut butter perfection …..
Makes about 20
Ingredients
- 100g smooth peanut butter
- 75g light muscovado sugar
- 50g butter
- 50g self-raising flour
- 50g oats (not jumbo or instant porridge)
Method
Line two baking trays and turn your oven on to 170°C.
Beat together the peanut butter, sugar and butter until smooth.
Add the flour and mix, then add the oats and mix again until just combined.
Using your fingers, take a walnut-sized amount of dough and roll it between your hands to make a ball. Flatten a little and place on the lined baking tray. Use the back of a fork to press into into a fat disc. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the biscuits turn a golden colour.
Leave to cool on the baking trays – they are very fragile when hot but will firm up as they cool.
Store in an airtight container.