Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Shortbread

These cookies are the classic combination of chocolate and peanut butter. They look more elegant by dipping them on only half the cookie, and the optional dusting of sea salt looks like snow. 

The dough is very crumbly, so don't become discouraged (like I did) just keep using a piece of plastic wrap to help shape into a log.  Once the dough is thoroughly chilled, they slice like a dream.  I tried to form my dough into a square edged log but was only partially successful. Despite their oblique shape, I think they look very pretty.

And, the cookies are delicious. I love the touch of salt. I love the way biting into one of these feels on my teeth. They are neither crunchy, crispy, or soft--more of a silky sandiness without the grit. 

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Shortbread
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
4 Tbsp. butter
Coarse salt for sprinkling (optional)

Beat together the butter and peanut butter, at medium speed of an electric mixer, until smooth. Gradually add sugar, beating well.  Stir in the vanilla.

Combine the flour and salt. Gradually add to the butter mixture, beating at low speed until blended.

Divide the dough in half and use plastic wrap to form each half into a log.  Refrigerate until very cold and firm, at least three hours, and best overnight.

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Slice each log into 3/8 inch slices and place one inch apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for 40 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking. When nicely browned, remove cookies to cooling racks.

When the cookies are completely cool, melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water. Dip half of each cookie in the melted chocolate and place on a parchment lined tray. Sprinkle immediately with coarse salt, if desired. 

What We ARE NOT Eating Wednesday--Tomato Aspic

Photo compliments EveningEdge.com

Once again, I am blogging with my friend, Melynda, for What We ARE NOT Eating Wednesday. If you want to join the fun, check with Melynda at her excellent blog, Mom's Sunday Cafe.  She is also hosting a Culinary Smackdown which you will probably want to participate in.

When I was a girl, my Mother and I, with Mama's best friend and her two daughters, would go shopping in downtown Columbus, Georgia. The highlight of our trips was having lunch at Morrison's Cafeteria. This was a time when the cafeteria was a very nice place, with plush carpet, white linens, proper silverware, crystal chandeliers, hushed voices.  Waiters, dressed in immaculate white jackets, would bring the food trays to the table and pour goblets of ice water from silver pitchers.  The food was scrumptious and I would always have the cherry pie.

Mama's friend always ordered the tomato aspic. I would be horrified when the waiter placed it on the table, shimmying with its blob of mayonnaise.  I couldn't watch her eat it.  Tomato aspic is a Southern "delicacy" I never acquired a taste for.  Ugh, tomato jello--with Mayo!  If you want to venture it, here are a few recipes.  Tried and true from the ladies of the Trinity Methodist Church in Opelika, Alabama (my home town). 



Cowboy Cookies

These cookies are big!  Many of the cookies I bake are delicate, dainty even. But not these brutes. These are man-size cookies. Cookies for Santa. They beg for a glass of milk. 

These are sturdy oatmeal cookies that lend themselves to a multitude of add-ins. Here, I have used semi-sweet chocolate chips and toasted pecans. Coconut and macadamia nuts are good, raisins and walnuts are good, M&M's are fun. Add some cinnamon if you like.

Cowboy Cookies
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans

Whisk together, in a medium bowl, the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Stir in the oats and set the mixture aside.

Beat together the butter and sugars, with an electric mixer, until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add dry ingredients and beat until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Cover and chill the dough for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Form dough into balls, using about 1/4 cup dough for each. Place on greased baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball of dough with the palm of your hand, to a 3 1/2 inch round.  Bake 10 - 15 minutes or until cookies are golden brown around the edges and firm in the center.  Remove to racks for cooling.

Recipe makes 2 dozen 4-inch cookies.

Vanilla Butter Cookies

These cookies are somewhat reminiscent of the European butter cookies that come in tins and are so popular at Christmas.  Only better. 

They are homemade slice-and-bake cookies.  Use a piece of plastic wrap to help form them into logs. As you can see, I flattened my logs to make them more of an oval shape, but you could make them perfectly round. I used turbinado (raw) sugar for decorating, but any coarse sugar will work. You could flatten one log as I did and make the other round, then use two different decorating sugars for variation. 

Vanilla Butter Cookies
2 cups flour
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg white
1 tsp. water
Coarse sugar for decorating

Whisk together the flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium bowl.  With an electric mixer, beat butter until fluffy. Gradually beat in the granulated sugar and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, mixing just until blended each time.  Gather the dough into a ball and divide in half.  Roll each half into a 9-inch log.  Wrap each log tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or up to three days.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and have oven racks in the top third and center positions of the oven.  Brush each log with a mixture of the egg white beaten with a little water.  Slice logs crosswise into 1/4 inch slices, roll each slice in coarse sugar, and place on parchment lined baking sheets about 1/2 inch apart.

Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking, just until the cookies turn golden brown at the edges.  Cool on pans for 1 minute, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

What We are NOT EATING Wednesday-Escargots

I am blogging with my friend, Melynda, of Mom's Sunday Cafe again this week.  She started a new feature called What We Are NOT EATING Wednesday.  I joined her a couple of weeks ago, with a recipe from Gourmet Magazine's first cookbook.  (I missed last week because of the holiday.)

This week I am featuring a recipe from my 1969 Betty Crocker Cookbook--Escargots (Snails).  I am fully aware that this is considered a French delicacy, but my stomach seizes up at the thought of actually eating one of those critters I've seen sliming across the garden and gobbling the marigolds. 

What about you? Have you eaten them? I would love to hear some comments from those who have, as I have never known a single person who had indulged. And please don't tell me they taste like chicken.