Saturday the 2nd saw Cookie Swap 4. An initiative started by Ishay Govender-Ypma, it was also the second year that concurrent swaps were held in Johannesburg and Durban. It is a fun afternoon of loads of cookies and catching up with fellow bloggers and bakers.
The most important part of the event though is the fund raising. This year the beneficiaries were Learn to Earn’s Bake for Profit course. The course, aimed at unemployed women, is designed so that both baking and business skills learnt in theory, are put into practice in real life situations. The need was there to raise funds for electric frying pans, electric beaters and calculators.
This year all three the swaps managed to raise R24000, with every cent going towards getting the much needed equipment. Of course it would have been impossible without the help of generous sponsors of some pretty fantastic auction items: Yuppiechef, Nomu, SafariNow, Bacon of the Month, Nicoletta, Wild Peacock, Rain Africa, Random House Struik, Cape Town Fashion, 12 Apostles Hotel and The Oyster Box.
It took me a while to decide what cookies to bake. I hardly ever bake cookies, so I need to go through a number of recipe books to finally make up my mind. The initial idea was to try and improve on last year’s Cowboy Cookies but I decided after a while that they can not be improved on and should be left alone in their glory as the best (and hottest) cookies I had baked.
I had never baked any kind of peanut butter cookie so set forth to find a recipe. Bill Granger’s recipe seemed easy and I decided to replace the chocolate with nougat. Chopping the nougat is a bit of a pain so I placed it in the freezer overnight to harden. Chopped it in big chunks and placed it in the food processor and blitzed it to smaller bits. I had to hold on to the processor for dear life and it did sound like it was going to shatter at any minute but it seemed to have worked. If anyone has a better idea please let me know!
These Peanut Butter Nougat Cookies are by no means the prettiest but they are deliciously chewy and definitely deliver on a nougat and peanut taste.
A big shout out to Ishay for all the work in giving us the opportunity to help. Here’s to Cookie Swap 5!
Peanut Butter Nougat Cookies
Ingredients
- 75 g white sugar
- 75 g muscovado sugar
- 2 tbs butter
- 4 tbs crunchy peanut butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 155 g flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100 g nougat chopped
- 30 g chopped roasted and salted peanuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
- Line two baking trays with baking paper.
- Beat the sugar, butter and peanut butter with an electric beater for about 5 minutes until creamy.
- Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.
- Sift together the flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture.
- Stir in the nougat and peanuts.
- Take heaped tablespoons of dough and roll into balls with your hands.
- Place on the trays and flatten slightly with a fork, leaving space for spreading.
- Bake for about 12 - 14 minutes until a dark golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack (they will harden as they cool) and store in an airtight container.
- Adapted from Bill Granger
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Dawn Jorgensen
Aug 11, 2014
Look soooooo yummy. Wish I had a million to enjoy with my coffee this morning 😉 x.
hein
Aug 11, 2014
Padkos for our next roadtrip Dawn x
Helen
Aug 11, 2014
Great to see you have been inspired by a great Aussie boy from my hometown Melbourne. Would love to know a bit more how your cookie swap works.
hein
Aug 11, 2014
He is my foodie crush Helen. I have a signed book and photo with him which I do treasure! Will inbox you some details about the swap.
Teresa
Aug 11, 2014
Deeelicious! Looking forward to the next cookie swap too.
hein
Aug 11, 2014
Thanks Teresa. Next year I need to (try) do something as pretty as your cookies were this year!
William Baldie
Aug 11, 2014
Aww, I don’t think I got to try one of those bad boys! I’m so regretting that now as I sit in front of my laptop with a boring cup of black coffee and nothing to nibble on…
Nice photographs again, Hein. Cookies should never be photographed in a neat and tidy fashion. Love your pics! I’m also a huge fan of Bill Granger and dig his approach to food preparation.I’m printing this recipe right now!
hein
Aug 11, 2014
Thanks William. Love Bill’s work and recipes but have to admit that I thought he lost a bit of charm in his last series that was shot after he had moved to the UK.
Thalia @ butter and brioche
Aug 12, 2014
wow i wish i had one of these cookies right now! they look delicious.. you can never go wrong with anything peanut butter flavoured!
hein
Aug 12, 2014
I will trade you a few for a BIG slice of that clafoutis on your blog Thalia! So gorgeous!