When it's cold, there's nothing more comforting than a warm kitchen with cozy smells.
I've been wanting to make these peanut butter cream sandwich cookies since I first tried them in New York last fall at a 'wichcraft kiosk in Bryant Park. I have fond associations with these particular cookies, because not only were they delicious, I first tasted them while sitting in the park with my dear friend Mikey during an outdoor concert, immediately after going to see the original Pooh animals at the New York City Library--something I've wanted to do for ages and ages.
The recipe is in Tom Colicchio's 'wichcraft cookbook as well as online in a few different places. I followed the recipe pretty exactly, except I rolled out the dough a bit more thinly, cut out smaller cookies, and I omitted the sprinkling of sugar on top--I'm not a fan of the texture, and I think it's overkill for most recipes. But if you enjoy peanut butter cookies, you'll really love these. They're sort of like fancy do-si-do Girl Scout cookies, but much richer and much more buttery, with just the right balance of salty and sweet. Perfect with a cold, creamy glass of milk.
I was surprised that one of steps is to incorporate toasted oats (I'd never thought to do such a thing) but I loved the resulting depth of flavor. I might try doing this the next time I make oatmeal cookies, too. Super delicious!
I packaged a few cookies up to hand over to our neighbor as well, using the pretty yellow and white swirled baking cups from the always pretty Bake it Pretty shop. The red-coated Christmas bear ornament from my last post is also holding a silver tinsel tree from the same shop, found in the cupcake toppers section.
It continues to be cold (and rainy, off and on) here in Los Angeles, so I expect I'll be doing lots of nesting in the weeks to come. Hope your new year is off to a fantastic start!
PS--you can see a round-up of most of the presents I crafted for the holidays on my Flickr page. Cheers!
