Cracktastical Salted Peanut Cookies

Look you guys! It's a recipe. A post of substance.

You have to admire my restraint, as the MTV movie awards were last night and there is SOOOO much to make fun of. Most of it involving my two favorite targets: TommyGay Cruise and The Twi-Hards.

I'm going to be a big girl and refrain from going there because:

a. I did promise a recipe now and then, even though I am pretty much completely over the bullshit that is attached to food blogging.

(I, of course, still love to frequent my beloved sites. You guys know who you are, you geniuses, you. I just don't want to take/upload/edit pictures, type out recipes, give/receive any more comments about how "I'm drooling all over my keyboard", and so on.)

#2. I've had so much on my plate real-world-wise, that all I've had time to post in the last month is a picture of Kristen Stewart being a bitch. Unacceptable. You deserve better.

#c. These cookies are really good. Especially with beer.

I came up with these cookies for a Beermaker's dinner we had at Crow in May. We teamed up with The Pike Brewing Company and served a 4 course meal that was as delicious and thoughtful as any winemaker's dinner we'd ever done. We just had a little more fun with the dishes. Less pretension, more jolly. I'd still rather drink wine with my food, but a beer fan would've had a chubby throughout this entire evening.

My dessert was to be pared with the XXX Stout. Like Guinness, only much more of a kick in the balls. I made a riff on a brown cow, calling it a "malted chocolate and stout fizz". I reduced the stout with sugar to make a syrup, then added some sparking water to make a soda. Poured it over malted milk chocolate ice cream and dolloped with coco nib chantilly. I served it with an assortment of cookies that had the salty/caramely/bitter flavor profiles.
(I was too busy plating to even consider taking pictures.)

This is my favorite of the assortment. I've made them twice since and can't stop eating them with a frosty cold one.

They're really easy to make, so make them.

Hey, maybe that lazy slut Brookie will knit something or whoop up a little morsel from her weight watchers cookbook. Anything to keep the next post from being about Chace Crawford's pot bust. Can you believe that shit? One measly joint? It's an outrage.



Salted Peanut Cookies

1/2 lb unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 Tb creamy peanut butter, Adams is my preferred brand for baking
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
2 cups all purpose flour
coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Combine the butter, peanut butter, sugars and salt together in the bowl of a standing mixer. Using the paddle attachment cream until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and mix until combined. Add the flour and peanuts. Mix on low speed just until dough forms.

Dump out onto a work surface and form into a log. Wrap in plastic. Freeze or refrigerate until firm. Slice off 1/4 inch thick cookies and place on a parchment lined sheet pan. Sprinkle each cookie liberally with coarse sea salt. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes, rotating halfway though.