Peanut Butter (and Almond) Cookies

[HEART] Learning to be content.

[EYES] Siberian Husky and blossoming frangipani on my balcony.

[EARS] Blasting air conditioning - summer (and sticky heat wave) is truly here!

[NOSE] Fresh laundry and camomile tea hmmmmm.

[HANDS] Buttery fingers making cookies!

While it seems like friends in the Northern Hemisphere are being creative with pumpkins in their kitchen, I've been churning out batches of cookies lately - mostly oatmeal cookies with olive oil (recipe next time perhaps!) They are wholesome and loved by the family, and I don't feel too bad (for their waistline) when they reach for more.

But today, I felt like a more indulgent type of cookie. Crumbly and melt-in-the-mouth kind.

The type of cookies laced with peanut butter and studded with almond (or not!). 

And taken with a cup of coffee or a glass of cold milk. 

We are making (almost) identical peanut butter cookies today! It's not often I make them this neat and pretty. These are made using a 7cm cookie cutter and not just roughly spooned and dropped onto a baking paper as I normally do with my cookies. 

The dark freckles on the cookies are undissolved rapadura sugar which are used in place of brown sugar.

Excuse me for the lack of step by step photos with these cookies. I hadn't intended to post this at all initially...I will however post the photo of the cutest little bum and feet I have ever laid my eyes on instead and hope that you overlook the slight glitch!

Welcome to the world, dear baby nephew! 

You rushed (too quickly) into the world with a head full of black hair.

At only a few weeks old, you already have us laughing all the time - pulling all sorts of funny faces I couldn't imagine a baby to make.

And produce sounds I also didn't expect to hear from someone so small.

You are SO loved, little one!

Peanut Butter and Almond Cookies
Adapted from Donna Hay

Ingredients

• 100g butter, softened 
•  ½ cup (140g) smooth peanut butter 
•  1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
•  1 teaspoon baking powder 
•  1 ¼ cups (220g) brown sugar  (I used 3/4 cup Rapadura sugar)
•  1 egg 
•  1 ¼ cups (185g) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted 
•  ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of (baking) soda, sifted 
•  Whole almonds, for decorating (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F). 
2. Place the butter, peanut butter, vanilla and brown sugar in an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 minutes or until well combined. 
3. Add the egg and beat for 2-3 minutes or until pale and fluffy. 
4. Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda and beat until a smooth dough forms. 
5. Roll the dough out between 2 sheets of non-stick baking paper to 5mm thick and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 
6. Using a 7cm-round cookie cutter, cut 22 rounds from the dough. Place on lightly greased baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper, leaving room to spread, and press the almonds into the rounds to decorate. 
7. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the edges are golden. 
8. Allow to cool on wire racks. 

TIP! The peanut butter will make the dough a little crumbly, so take care when cutting out the rounds