Prime Cuts

Oatmeal, chocolate chip, peanut butter, snickerdoodle, macaroon, madeleine, and macadamia nut; all are considered cookie royalty looking down on lesser cookies such as the Shortbread. This well known peasant craves attention, deliberation, discussion, and consideration. It was my goal to help the Shortbread cookie dethrone it’s lofty, regal aristocrats from their luxurious residence of cookie greatness.

Shortbread cookies never get the credit they deserve, they’re simple to make but are often very dry and sometimes lack flavor making them crumbling, tasteless, cardboard squares.

But with a slight change to the most basic recipe and paired with a Brazilian coffee the flavors balance well allowing you to enjoy each individually yet with an embraced sense that all is right with the world. Sometimes relegating to simplicity is worth the questions you might be asked by serving “only shortbread cookies.” There is something nostalgic and sophisticated about breaking the shortbread cookie into your mouth as the foundation and building on top of it by drinking a smooth, full-bodied coffee.

That’s the best part about shortbread and coffee, you can serve it plain and fancy, or you can serve it together with ice cream sandwiched in between two cookies making a fun adventure for your guests, or kids, without the coffee obviously.

The recipe is simple so have fun with it and add additional ingredients like pecans, lemon peel, or brown sugar.

Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

Makes 12 large cookies
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Combine flour and sugar; with pastry blender cut butter in until it looks like crumbs and clings.
3. Knead until smooth, form into ball.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick.
5. Using a knife cut into twelve large rectangles.
6. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. (Score the cookies if you want it fancy, we made a quilt pattern)
7. Bake for 25 minutes

Enjoy!

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Since Justin spent the past few days moving up to Boston, there won’t be an new episode of Prime Cuts TV this week. So, we brought you something even better. Today we have a guest post from Ari Herzog. Ari has been nice enough to share a peanut butter oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. Yes, you read that right, tons of yummy goodness in one perfect cookie. Oh yeah, and it’s healthy too. Without further ado….

Healthy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

The original came from allrecipes.com, but I’ve amended it over the past year.  For instance, the original called for butter which I replaced with apple sauce; and white sugar and brown sugar, which I replaced with just brown sugar.  Making it healthy and low-fat.

The “toppings” (banana, oats, raisins) can be substituted with chocolate chips, nuts, etc. for a different result.

Ingredients

1 cup apple sauce
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup peanut butter (chunky is best)
1 tsp vanilla extract (or Kalhua, if preferred)
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
3 mashed ripe bananas
2 cups instant oats
1/2 cup raisins

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the apple sauce and brown sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the peanut butter and vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda, and stir into the mixture. Finally, stir in the oats and raisins.

3. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an unprepared cookie sheet.

4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cookies are lightly toasted on the edges. Remove and cool.

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We’re both suckers for all things chocolate and peanut butter.  So when someone that Justin knows gave him a recipe for chocolate-dipped peanut butter pretzel cookies, we just had to share it with all of you.  The recipe comes courtesy of Sarah Brewer, a culinary student at the Allegany College of Maryland and was posted in a recent issue of Maryland Life Magazine.  This recipe was recently featured in a magazine but we’re unsure of which one.  But, we highly recommend you give this recipe a try, we’re sure you won’t be disappointed.

Do you have a special recipe that you would love to share?  Please contact us about featuring your recipe on Prime Cuts.

Ingredients

1/2 c. unsalted butter
3/4 c. smooth peanut butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour, sifted
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
16 oz. mini pretzels, salted (coarsely chop 1 cup for the dough, keep the rest whole)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
16 oz. milk or dark chocolate
powdered sugar (optional)

Preparation

Preheat over to 350 degrees.  With a mixer, cream together the peanut butter and both sugars for approximately 1-2 minutes, scraping down the bowl halfway through.  Add the egg and vanilla, mix until blended, and scrape the bowl again.  Don’t over-mix!  Combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and add to the batter.  Mix on low until just combined.  Add the chopped pretzels and mix until just blended.  Scoop out 2-inch balls of dough and drop on greased sheet pans.  Press one whole pretzel into the center of each ball to flatten.  bake for approximately 10-15 minutes until golden brown.  Cool.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler.  Dip the bottoms of the cooled cookies in the chocolate.  Place the cookies upside-down on a parchment-lined tray.  When dry, flip the cookies back over and sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

You can download a PDF version of this Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies Recipe.

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Photo by: abbyladybug