I don’t usually use regular peanut butter in anything anymore. I switched over to natural brands a few years ago, and for the most part have adapted most of my recipes to use natural. Natural peanut butter doesn’t have the additional fat and sugar in it that regular brands do, so sometimes the result can be quite different. I bought some regular peanut butter a few months ago, to use in a recipe I ended up not liking, so today I am using up the rest of the jar and this is the perfect recipe for that. It’s a recipe I’ve used for years, and I am not sure where I got it originally, but it bursts with peanut flavor, and isn’t too sweet. Next time, I’ll try it with natural and let you know how it works out, but for now, we’ll go back to the good old days and Skippy.
Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 & 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups shelled, roasted and chopped peanuts
Cream together the peanut butter, butter and sugars, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, until completely combined and then mix into the wet mixture. Mix in the peanuts. Line baking sheets with parchment and using a small cookie scoop [1&1/2 teaspoons], portion dough onto the sheets, leaving an inch and a half between them. Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes, turning pans half way through and remove to a wire rack to cool. Makes about 100 small cookies.
They are a luscious indulgence, that thankfully, freezes well, so you can put some away for another day.
and order one! You can show people my name in the book and say – “Look – I know her! Ok – so I read her blog. She cooks stuff. And we have short insightful conversations occasionally.” Hmmmmm. Never mind about that last part – that’s just in my head…
This is not an original recipe – not for the most part anyway. I think most people make Martha Stewart’s version, which is very easy to find online. It is unusual, not just because it a sweet that uses cornmeal, but also because rather than butter, it uses olive oil. This isn’t so common here in the States, but there are quite a few cakes made in Italy that use olive oil, so you might find mention of them in Italian cookbooks. I confess that I often us olive oil even where it warns that you should not. The flavor supposedly will overwhelm other ingredients, particularly in sweets, but I haven’t found that to be the case. Vegetable or canola oil is one of those things that I seem to run out of, and then forget to buy, so it’s not usual for me to get half way through a recipe for something like pumpkin bread and realize I only have olive oil. In it goes, with no one the wiser.
Next, whisk in, until uniformly combined
Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan
Sprinkle evenly with 1/2 cup toasted pecans [optional]
Sprinkle 1/3 cup granulated sugar evenly over the nuts. [also optional, I suppose, but the sugar topping makes this cake extra special]
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
When the cake is done, cool it for about 10 minutes in the pan, then remove from the pan and finish cooling on a rack. Peel the parchment paper away carefully, and place the cake on a nice plate.
Serve with a few of the orange segments on each slice. You might want to plop a bit of lightly sweetened, whipped heavy cream close by, if you are feeling particularly wicked and indulgent.
And there you have it – lovely moist cake, with a touch of sweetness, lovely orange flavor and a crunchy sugar topping. Can you expect more from life on a Monday?
