Introducing my grandson Ollie and Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Me and Ollie ;o)

Sorry I haven’t blogged or visited blogs much these past two weeks; I’ve been preoccupied and busy with the run up and birth of my grandson. Ollie, weighing in at 8lbs 2oz, was born by C-section after 36 hours of labour the afternoon of Saturday, Oct 30th. Both Ollie and mum are well and back home. I may be accused of being bias but I have to say he is a beautiful baby and perfect in every way. He is the spitting image of his dad when he was a new born and brings all those wonderful memories flooding back. We are all so in love with him and I can’t wait to fulfil my “nana” duties. It is wonderful being a young and vibrant granny and I have all the confidence in the world that my son will make a great dad, following in our footsteps.

Although I have baked my Christmas cake and made my Christmas pudding, with my mincemeat being planned for this weekend, I have not baked much recently. After hubby’s regular reminders that the cake and cookie tins have been bare for some time, I decided to use up the last of 2009’s batch of mincemeat and baked a batch of Mincemeat and Raisin Muffins. I have made these a few times before and they have always gone down well and perfect way to use up the mincemeat you may have leftover.

Following the muffin bake I felt a cookie craving come over me! Remembering how wonderful the Chocolate Chip Cookies from Nigella Kitchen came out, I decided to use that same recipe with peanut butter chips in place of the chocolate chips. They came out as wonderful and moreish as I expected. They delivered a soft chewy centre encased in a wonderfully crisp and crunchy shell.

Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Makes approx 14

Ingredients
150g soft unsalted butter
125g soft light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg, fridge-cold
1 large egg yolk, fridge cold
300g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 x 326g packet peanut butter chips

1 x large baking sheet

Preheat the oven to 170oC/fan 140oC/gas mark 3. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Melt the butter and let it cool a bit. Put the brown and white sugars into a bowl, pour the slightly cooled, melted butter over them and beat together.

Beat in the vanilla, the cold egg and cold egg yolk until your mixture is light and creamy.

Slowly mix in the flour and bicarbonate of soda until just blended, then fold in the peanut butter chips.

Scoop the cookie dough into an American quarter-cup measure or a 60ml round ice-cream scoop and drop onto the prepared baking sheet, plopping the cookies down about 8cm apart. You will need to make these in 2 batches, keeping the bowl of cookie dough in the fridge between batches.

Bake for 15-17 minutes in the prepared oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack.

The cookies can be made up to 3 days ahead and stored in an airtight container. Will keep for a total of 5 days.