Category: Recipe Review

I started eating peanut butter out of the jar, with a spoon, when I was in college.  It was one of those bad habits people develop when they stay up all night doing important things like writing 10 pages papers that count for 70 percent of their course grade and writing articles for the school paper about how many health code violations the dining hall had racked up that month.  It’s not a habit I’m proud of, nor one that I’ve held on to (except for a brief period when I was pregnant, but that doesn’t count), but in dire moments that burst of protein did wonders for both my energy level and my mood.

But I still love a good peanut M&M, peanut butter cup or peanut butter cookie, so I was glad when Jasmine Cuisine chose them to bake with Dorie Sept. 7.  They were quick and easy to assemble and I had high hopes because I ate a ridiculous amount of raw dough while I assembled them….and then I pulled mine out of the oven and thought that maybe they were too easy.  My cookies were flat as pancakes!  Still delicious and not too sweet and tender to bite, but not at all like the picture in Dorie’s book.  Her’s looked more like a toasted English muffin, and mine were similar to manhole covers.

Was it because I left out the peanuts? Or because I sprinkled mini chocolate chips into the top? Would it have made a difference if I had chilled the dough before I rolled it into balls and then rolled the balls in sugar for baking? I’ll just have to try them again I guess.

Just like the Cookies on Friday blogger who selected this recipe last month,  I love baking bar cookies. It’s a simple way to create a good volume of cookies (whether you are sharing them with others or simple curling up with a glass of milk after a bad day), and there is something unbelievably therapeutic about pressing batter into the corners of a pan and then licking it off your fingers when you have it Just Right.

Picking different flavors to add into the bars is too big a decision for me on most days, so I stuck with Dorie’s recommendations on this one: butterscotch chips, milk chocolate chip, walnuts and coconut. The only on I regret is the coconut, as it was really the only thing I tasted. Maybe it’s me – coconut isn’t my favorite thing – but it didn’t stop me from gobbling these up! The cookie base that carries whatever add-ins you choose is just perfect enough to make these irresistible, regardless.

I baked Tuesday and then worked late Wednesday, which means that when I got home after dark I found PT asleep and The Other Eater (is he now Another Eater, since there are three of us?) cooling off with a glass of milk and two brrrr-ownies.

And he seemed pleased with his find. I was glad, because they sure were unattractive when I finished slicing them. Dorie wasn’t kidding when she recommended chilling them before slicing, because they are sticky and sweet and the counter-cooled creations stuck to the knife like skin to vinyl upholstery in August. But fresh from the fridge at the end of another humid July day, Another Eater said they were perfect! Gooey but not sticky. Minty. Dense and chocolate-y. I’m looking forward to my snack after work tonight!

If you can see beyond my shotty slicing job, they look good, with the big white chucks peeking through the shiny dark chocolate. They are the perfect picnic treat, but they’d melt on the buffet.  Hmmmmm…too bad I’ll have to hoard them in my own fridge this week! It’s hard being me.

I wasn’t overly impressed.

But first, an apology: I’ve been away for far too long.  But I have a GREAT excuse.

P.T. was born March 13, and he’s kept me quite busy. Sure he looks cute and serene here, but man does he have lungs! He’s a good baby, and I’m working hard to keep up with him. Baking has been secondary.

But now, back to the cookies. They were good cookies – dunked in milk they were loaded with brown sugar and made a great late-night TV-watching snack. I mixed dark chocolate chips, mini chips and semi-sweet chips in mine (honestly, I was cleaning out the baking drawer and just threw in all my remnants, but my story is that it made for a nice surprise when you bit into a chip). But these are still cookies and thus too crisp for my taste.  I prefer cookie bars because they are softer and more cake-y.  But I can see how they’d be a hit at a picnic this summer or in a room full of kids. Bake away!