Crunchy Peanut Butter and Sea Salt Cookies

I am not a cookie lover, neither is Mr J nor Miss C. I seldom bake cookies, but when I did set my eyes on these cookies, I fell in love with them. I can't explain why. Maybe it's the sea salt flakes, maybe it's the peanut butter....

They give you a crunch when you first bite into them, followed by a surprise burst of saltiness from the sea salt flakes. Then they just melt in your mouth and leave you a very subtle peanut flavour.

Trust me, you have to bake them and appreciate the awesomeness of these cookies.

Crunchy Peanut Butter and Sea Salt Cookies Recipe
(Adapted from Mix & Bake by Belinda Jeffery)
Makes 50-60

Belinda Jeffery - "One taste of these simple biscuits is like tasting my childhood; I can clearly remember standing on a stool next to my nan, running a finger scrupulously over the beater she had just given me, trying to scrape up every last morsel of rich peanut-filled dough. (I'm quite sure she deliberately left much more dough on the beater than necessary to bring joy to a four-year-old's heart.) Her biscuits were always dense and chunky with peanuts, and my job was to make a criss-cross pattern with a fork across the tops of them. These particular biscuits are a little different in that they're surprisingly light but still satisfyingly crunchy, with a subtle peanut flavour. That somewhat usual thing about them is that they have a smattering of crystalline sea salt flakes on top. This really came about by chance as I was making them and thinking how yummy salted peanuts are. One thing led to another and I decided to give it a whirl, and I'm so glad I did because I just love the result - crisp, sweet, nutty biscuits with the surprising tang of the salt. I even put them on my tongue upside-down so the first thing I taste is the salt."

Ingredients

2 cups (300 g) plain flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
180 g unsalted butter, cool but not cold, cut into chunks
1/3 cup (75 g) castor sugar
1/3 cup (75 g) firmly-packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
110 g crunchy peanut butter
1/3 cup (50 g) salted peanuts
Sea salt flakes, for topping

Method

1. Put the flour, baking powder and salt into a food processor and whiz them together for about 10 seconds so they're well combined. Tip them out into a bowl.
2. Put the butter and both sugars into the food processor. Whiz them for 40 seconds, stopping and scraping down the sides once or twice with a rubber spatula, until they're light and creamy. Add the vanilla extract and egg and whiz them in for 10 seconds; the mixture may look a bit curdled, but it will be fine once the flour is added. Scrape the peanut butter into the egg mixture and whiz the machine briefly again so it mixes in. Add the flour mixture to the processor and mix it in with on/off pulses, until it just forms a thick soft dough (Don't overdo the mixing in of the flour or the biscuits will be a tad tough.)
3. Add the peanuts to the dough and stir them in with a spatula (you might find it easier to do this if you tip the dough out into a bowl and work the nuts in by hand, as it's always a bit awkward in the processor). Scrape the dough out onto a chopping board and divide it in half.
4. Lay a large sheet of foil on a bench and cover it with a sheet of baking paper. Gently knead one piece of the dough briefly to bring it together, then roll it into a log about 5 cm in diameter.
   
   

   

5. Sit the log on one edge of the baking paper and roll it up in the paper. Next, roll it so it's wrapped in the foil. Twist the ends of the foil tightly in opposite directions so you end up with something that looks like a very long bonbon. Repeat with the remaining dough.
   
   

   

6. If you're baking the biscuits on the same day, chill the logs for 2-3 hours in the fridge until they're firm enough to slice. Or, at this stage, you can freeze the logs until you need them (they keep well in the freezer for about 5 weeks; just defrost them in the fridge before slicing them.)
7. Preheat your oven to 150C. Line some baking trays with baking paper. Unwrap the log (or logs) and cut into 6-7 mm-thick slices.
   
   

   

8. Sit the rounds, about 2 cm apart, on the prepared baking trays. Gently sprinkle a little sea salt onto each one; I'd go fairly lightly on the salt the first time you make them, and then when you've tried them once you can adjust the amount.
   

   

9. Bake, in batches if neccessary, for 20-25 minutes or until the biscuits are light golden-brown and feel crisp to touch. If your oven cooks a bit unevenly, turn the trays back to front and swap the shelves halfway through the baking time. Remove the trays from the oven and leave the biscuits to cool completely on them. Store the biscuits in an airtight container, where they will keep well for 5-6 days, or freeze them for up to 2 weeks, and when you want, defrost them at room temperature.