perfect peanut butter and orange blossom honey cookies

… as you can probably tell from these last couple of posts I think i’ve re-kindled my love for peanut butter.  Not that i ever fell out of love with peanut butter but it’s the kind of thing we just stopped having in the house because if we have it in the house it gets eaten in sandwiches with jam and that leads to danger.  I also always associate peanut butter with childhood and kids as it has a very unsophisticated edge but in fact there are some incredible whole-nut organic peanut butters that have a very mature edge to them.

perfect peanut and orange blossom honey butter cookies
all the kids in the office are off on a little outing today so i thought i’d bake a batch of these to see us merrily on our way.  Hysterically we’re all travelling by mini-bus down to Kent to stay in a pub, the timing is horrific but i’m sure once the wine hits the hole it will be a well needed and well deserved break… there’s a knack to making decent peanut butter cookies and that’s decent peanut butter (I used a brand called Whole Earth) and a little salt… oh and the orange blossom honey simply take these cookies to heights unknown… this recipe is pretty failsafe even for a cookie luddite like me…

this recipe is enough for 24 cookies but feel free to halve the recipe but god knows why you would, they are the best peanut butter cookies you’ll ever eat!

200g plain flour
2 teaspoons bicarb of soda
1 teaspoon salt
100g butter – room temp
100g dark brown sugar
100g caster sugar
1 medium eggs
1 tablespoon orange blossom honey
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
350g crunchy peanut butter

pre-heat the oven to 170C and line 2 large baking trays with parchment

sieve the flour, bicarb and salt in a bowl, mix together and set aside

in another bowl, beat the butter and sugars until soft and light, then add the eggs, peanut butter, honey and vanilla and beat until blended

pour in the flour and mix together with a wooden spoon – it will be thick but try and combine till thoroughly mixed

take roughly a desert spoon full of the mixture, roll into a ball and flatten slightly into a round shape, lay evenly onto the baking tray – you should get 12 per tray

bake for 10 mins if you like them soft or 12 mins if you prefer them crunchy… I like them perfectly soft

eat and of course, enjoy!