This afternoon, I took a much needed break from my computer and decided to bake cookies. Problem was, I was out of butter and the nearest store that had good butter, not the local brand that tastes like margarine, was 15 minutes away by bus. But thanks to my new favorite online search tool, I found a peanut butter cookie recipe that required neither butter nor flour.
I followed the recipe exactly except I used chunky peanut butter instead of smooth, and vanilla extract instead of Mexican vanilla. As a result my cookies came out crunchy, whereas the picture on Cookie Madness made them look soft and chewy. But...jackpot...these taste almost exactly like the large peanut butter cookies my father used to make at his Cantonese bakery back in Boston. The ones I would scarf down whenever I stopped by, to "visit." And since he hardly ever baked at home, I didn't really learn any of his trade secrets. (Yes, it's true that Chinese folks tend to prefer crunchier cookies, having grown up outside the cult of Nestle Tollhouse.)
This recipe makes 40 small cookies, but I'm sure they'll all be gone by morning.
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