a peanut butter sandy beach

As you would have guessed by now, I am a huge fan of anything that is hassle-free, or requires very few ingredients, which clearly explains my love for dump-and-stir muffins. But when you are craving for bite-sized cookies, and pressed for time (we are talking about major I-want-it-pronto type of craving here) and the only cookie recipes you have at your perusal all include butter, you feel like drawing chocolate cookie pieces in grape-scented ink pen and munching them.

You see, one of the greater evils in the kitchen for me is that block of butter lying in the refrigerator. Firstly, I do not like touching butter. I do not like having them on my hands. It reminds me of cheese and milk. I take extra care with them, armed with my metal/wooden spoon, and when a smidgen touches my fingers, I would immediately wash it off with lots of soap. There is just something about that greasy oily milk/cheese-smelling thing that I really do not like.

Secondly, as if it is bad enough, butter refuses to work with me. It is very surprising how a block of butter will gracefully take its own sweet time to bask in the glorious heat of the Singapore sun (and by golly, being a tiny red dot of an island 200km off the equator is no mean feat), and simply refuse to soften. So, as far as I’m concerned, cookies are meant for planners, not cravers.

So imagine my delight when I flipped through my “Recipes – Cookies” folder;– half-heartedly, if I may add;– and came across this. No butter. Just brilliant peanut butter. It could not have arrived at a better time. And as if the constellations were trying to tell me something, several recipes down, I found the exact same recipe bookmarked from another favourite blogger of mine. Twice loved, the recipe definitely did not disappoint.

These peanut butter sandies were dense, and simply melted in your mouth. If you are a huge fan of peanut butter, this is the best there is out there. I say that with no qualms because it really felt as though you were eating peanut butter out of the jar, complete with that authentic peanut-butter-sticking-to-the-roof-of-your-tongue feeling. These would cure any peanut butter cravings within the first bite, yet they leave you reaching into that cookie jar addictively.

Before tasting, I wondered why “sandies”, and not merely “cookies”? Well, for me, the coarse sandy grit of the sugar-peanut butter mix definitely brings to mind an image of lying on a peanut butter sandy beach, where you can simply scoop up the sand in the palm of your hands, form a little dough, and ta-daa, peanut butter sandies.

I’m too imaginative, I know.

Because they’re twice bookmarked, and oh so good, I’m sending these over to Ruth’s Bookmarked Recipes event.

Peanut Butter Sandies
(adapted from here and here)

1 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter (I used 1 1/2 cup chunky pb)
1 cup flour (I used 3/4 cups)
1 cup light brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. In a large bowl, mix brown sugar and peanut butter. Gradually add flour until combined.
3. Using your hands, roll about a tablespoon of dough into a ball. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and flatten slightly.
4. Bake for about 8mins. Leave to cool for about 5 mins before transferring them to a cooling rack.

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