Peanut and milk chocolate sandies

Sometimes you just need some cookies in your life! Like last week. May has been the craziest month of the year so far for me and while I enjoy embracing the busy I realised that I have not had any time to do some leisurely baking for the family. So I decided it was high time I rectified that situation and grabbed my copy of “Sweet” by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh for some cookie inspiration!

With over fifty pages of cookie recipes to choose from (just one chapter of many droolworthy ones!) there is no shortage of inspiration in this book. I settled on some peanut sandies and decided to adapt the recipe slightly by omitting the sugar coating and sandwiching them together (and drizzling them) with melted chocolate. Because sometimes you just need a little chocolate in your life too.

It was so great to get stuck into some good old fashioned cookie baking again. And the family certainly weren’t complaining. You really can’t go wrong with a peanut butter and chocolate combo and this recipe did not disappoint. So go on… carve out some time in that hectic schedule and treat yourself to some baking therapy!

Cook’s notes:

this recipe should make around 22 individual cookies or 11 sandwich cookies depending on the size of your cutter.
the original recipe says to sprinkle 2 tablespoons of demerara sugar over the cookies before baking. I left out this step since I was using melted chocolate but you can do either.

PEANUT AND MILK CHOCOLATE SANDIES

Servings: 11
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90g raw (unsalted, unroasted) peanuts or roasted peanuts
150g plain flour
125g butter, room temperature
50g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
150g milk chocolate

1.) Preheat your oven to 190ºC. Spread the peanuts on a small tray and roast for 8-10 minutes until golden. (Roast for 3-4 minutes if using roasted peanuts.) Set aside to cool completely. Turn the oven off.

2.) Place the peanuts in a food processor with 50g of the flour. Blitz until the peanuts are finely chopped.

3.) Place the butter and icing sugar in a separate bowl. Whisk for 2 minutes until fluffy. Mix in the vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

4.) Sift the remaining flour, salt and baking powder into the bowl and mix. Add the peanut flour mixture and mix again until just combined.

5.) Tip the the mixture onto your work surface and gently knead it together. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

6.) Preheat your oven to 190ºC. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

7.) Roll the biscuit dough out between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of ½ a centimetre. Cut out 6-7cm circles and arrange these on the baking trays. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool.

8.) Melt the milk chocolate and spread a heaped teaspoonful onto a cookie. Place another cookie on top and gently press them together. Repeat with the remaining cookies. Any leftover chocolate can be drizzled over the cookies. Leave to set.