Hosting (salmon and cranberry orange cake recipes)

I have people round for dinner all the time... I love socialising that way. It's so personal, so comfortable and much more intimate and special than hanging out in a bar or restaurant after restaurant. Even that gets boring. I normally make nice but not overly complicated food... my Moroccan dish, perhaps some salmon, roast chicken.

But until this Christmas, I'd never really hosted a celebration meal before. On the 25th I invited Marc's parents round. His mother is a fabulous cook and always hosts us so beautifully so I wanted to give her a night off. Whilst I love cooking I have to say was hard work! I have to improve on the hostess front.

Do you have any hostess tips to share? If so please do: I'd love to hear them.

The most difficult thing for me was the timing: having so many dishes to prepare using just one oven, and keeping everything warm. I made salmon stuffed with vegetables and garlic butter, roast chicken and roast potatoes, roast vegetables, fennel in red peppers and broccoli with breadcrumbs.






I definitely think that I'm better at dessert!

I made Katie's Cranberry and Orange cake, and I have to say that she is a genius because she made that recipe up herself and it is completely and utterly sublime. Everyone loved it. And it's a lovely centrepiece cake, so definitely one to tab in your books. I also made peanut butter biscuits and gingerbread biscuits. Yummy!




Here's the recipe for the cake. NB: I omitted the orange liqueur (couldn't find any) and added half a cup of orange juice in addition to what the recipe calls for and it made for a lovely moist cake.

Cranberry Orange Cake

Ingredients:
3 c. flour, divided
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c. unsalted butter
1/2 c. oil
1 2/3 c. granulated sugar
2 Tbsp orange zest
1 Tbsp orange liquor
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/4 c. fresh orange juice
3/4 c. buttermilk
2 c. fresh cranberries

for icing:
2 c. powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3-6 tsp fresh orange juice

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prepare basic bundt pan.
-In bowl of stand mixer, add sugar, butter and oil and beat until light and fluffy in texture as well as color, about 5 minutes.
-Meanwhile, in medium bowl, combine 2 1/2 c flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
-Whisk to combine well and set aside.
-To sugar mixture, add orange zest.
-One at a time, add egg and beat to combine well.
-Add liquor and vanilla, beating to combine well.
-Add orange juice and buttermilk, mixing to combine well.
-Stop mixer and scrape down sides of bowl.
-With mixer on lowest speed, add flour mixture and mix until almost combined.
-Stop mixer and remove bowl.
-In bowl flour was in, add remaining 1/2 c. flour and cranberries.
-Toss to coat and add to batter.
-Using large spatula, fold cranberries and extra flour into batter just until combined.
-Pour batter into bundt pan.
-Tap on counter to remove air bubbles, smooth top of batter away from center of pan.
-Place into preheated oven on rack in center of oven and bake until toothpick inserted into center of pan comes out clean, about 1 hour.
-Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 20 minutes.
-Turn cake out onto wire rack and cool completely.
-Once cake is cool, in medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, vanilla extract and orange juice, 1 tsp at a time until medium consistency is achieved.
-Drizzle icing over top of cake, decorate with orange rind and fresh cranberries and serve.

Salmon Recipe

1 whole salmon, boned and skinned
2 carrots
1 courgette
a few stalks of celery
1 parsnip
1 glass of white wine
(add any other vegetables you like)
1/2 (apprx) cup butter to smear
4 tablespoons butter
whole head of garlic
1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
food string

1. Place salmon half down in a baking tray covered in aluminium foil, with the cut part facing up. Place strings under the piece of salmon every few inches. These will tie this half to the half that will be placed on top.
2. Crush garlic and blend with butter.
3. Smear onto open half of salmon
4. Using a mixer julienne the vegetables
5. Fry the vegetables in a small amount of butter, salt and pepper to taste, until they are soft but not brown.
6. Place vegetables on open half of salmon, ensuring they do not spill over the sides.
7. Place remaining piece of salmon cut side down on top of the vegetables
8. Tie the strings together so that the two halves of salmon and vegetables are held in place.
9. In a bowl, crush the remaining garlic, add wine, 4 tablespoons of butter, squeezed lemon, salt and pepper and pour over the salmon.
10. Cover in tin foil and bake in the oven at 180 ceklcius for about 30 minutes, but ovens vary so do check.

This was a yummy light addition to normal holiday food. It can look elegant and was enjoyed by all.

How to make macaroons

Here's the macaroon tutorial I promised.... good luck! They are totally worth it! This is a vanilla recipe and is just delicious. Once you've mastered it the variations are limitless... add raspberry coulis to the centre and colouring to the shell... the world - or should I say the macaroon - is your oyster!

Macaroon shells

250g ground almonds
450g icing sugar
200g egg whites (which have been left refrigerated for 5 days)
50g sugar
5g vanilla powder (you need a real vanilla pod for optimum flavour)

1. Mix 250g almonds with 450g icing sugar and the vanilla powder, and sieve the mixture so that you end up with a fine powder.

2. Put the egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixture and beat until white and fluffy. (If you are going to experiment with other flavours and want to add food colouring to the shells, do so at this stage).




3. With a spatula, slowly add the almond-sugar mix to the egg whites and mix in the stand bowl until you have a smooth and somewhat shiny mixture.

4. Scoop this mixture into a piping bag, you will need a tip between size 7 and 10.

5. Rest the tip on the baking tray (covered with parchment paper) and form circles. The mixture should ooze out from the side of the tip (the tip should not be held vertically so that it's in the middle and the circle oozes from around it).




6. Form an even number of circular discs. This may take some practice! At first, your macaroons might be misshapen, but they'll still taste amazing!

7. Put your baking tray on top of two others. It is important to bake your macaroons on a tray that has two others below it for insulation purposes. Then put three trays into an oven at 160 degrees celsius for 12-14 minutes. Rotate about half way through.

8. As soon as you take the upper tray out, pour water in between the parchment paper and the tray using a measuring pot. This helps the macaroons to unstick from the paper.





9. Wait a few minutes, then remove the discs not by immediately lifting but by rotating them so that they come off neatly.

10. Arrange them in rows, flat side up.



Cream filling

Ingredients

75g full fat milk
30g sugar
60g egg whites
30g sugar
200g butter (room temperature)
1 vanilla pod

Boil the milk, the sugar and the contents of the vanilla pod (slice in two, scrape out the filling and add). Mix the egg whites and the sugar. Add the milk and stir at 82 degrees celcius. Cool down by whisking to 30 degrees celsius and add the butter. Beat, then leave in the fridge for about an hour.






Finishing off

Put the filling into a piping bag and pipe the cream onto the middle of half the discs. Then put another disc over the top to create beautiful macaroons.



Variations

Try adding fresh raspberries to the cream, or even chocolate. Feel free to experiment - that's how the most magnificent versions came to be!

Please tell me how you got on!

Red velvet cupcakes

My friend Lizzie recently moved into a fabulous flat in Hampstead and was having a housewarming party on Saturday. Naturally, I wanted to bring something home baked. I was about to run to my trusted vanilla cupcake recipe but I thought to myself that it's terrible to have to many cookery books and not try out new things. So I decided to pick up one of my untested cookery books and try something new.

The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook is one that I've been curious about but could not really justify with all the baking books I own. I didn't buy it until I found it so reduced that it would have been an offence not to. And I am so glad that I did. If this recipe is anything to go by, this book really is a cut above the rest (including the likes of Nigella.

These cupcakes were so moist and dense yet light. Really sumptuous and a complete hit. Here is the recipe, however note that I reduced the amount of sugar in the frosting by 1/3 (personal preference) when in my cupcakes and we all thought they were sweet enough.

Ingredients:

60g butter at room temperature
150g caster sugar
10g cocoa
10ml red food colouring
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
Frosting
300g icing sugar, sifted
50g butter at room temperature
125g cream cheese, chilled

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. In a separate bowl mix the cocoa powder, food colouring and vanilla extract. Once mixed add to the creamed butter and sugar.

4. Mix carefully until combined and then add half the buttermilk, mix further and add half the flour. Mix thoroughly before adding the remainder of the buttermilk and flour and mixing further.

5. Add the white wine vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix thoroughly for at least 5 mins.

6. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 mins or until the cupcakes spring back slightly when touched.

7. Allow the cupcakes to cool slightly before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.

8. In the meantime, to make the frosting cream the icing sugar and butter together until well mixed.

9. Add the cream cheese and mix until it is incorporated. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy for at least 5 mins.

10. Use a spatula to layer the frosting on top of the cupcakes.

Ottolenghi

Ottolenghi sells seductive Mediterranean food (there really is no other adjective to describe it). It is al fresco, fresh, colourful and healthy (for the most part) and influenced by all the countries whose food I love, Morocco, Turkey, Iran and my own homeland, Israel. Seriously yummy.



I got back from Paris on Sunday at lunchtime and Marc was in Islington having lunch with his friends. The group headed up to Ottolenghi for something sweet and Marc returned home with a sinfully dark slice of chocolate cake (minus a few bites he'd nibbled off on his way home). Love him.

Just look at this cake!



What can I say - it was the moistest darkest yummiest chocolate cake I have ever eaten. I am obsessed. Can't wait for the next opportunity to go (ie. this Sunday). And in the interim I have had to content myself with ordering the cookbook straight from Amazon, first class please, so I can see whether I can concoct something equally delicious. It's going to be a tough challenge, I can tell you.

This food is so inspired by Israel and I'm really excited to share my home country's food with my closest friends when they come out for the wedding!

Paris recap

What can I say, I had a wonderful time! It felt as though I hadn't been there in 20 years rather than 8 months though - that was strange. Audrey picked me up from the station (can I reiterate how amazing it is to get on a train and be in Paris in little over 2 hours?) and we went straight to my favourite sushi place! We would go every Wednesday to get our fix, so it was only fitting that this be our first stop. Amazing menu: salad and soup, sashimi and skewers and rice all for 15 euros. Scrummy.

Then we went to Audrey's apartment which, like all great Parisian starter homes, is on the 6th floor without a lift! Once you get there you feel on top of the world. I lived in a similar space in 2003 in Saint Germain des Pres. Good times indeed and staying with Audrey took me right back to them.




The following day we had an early lunch with a lovely colleague (sushi again - love it) and then I went off to my pastry class at LeNotre. It was weird going around in the Metro on my own. It felt like my town, I was at home, except it was no longer my home. It is hard to explain.

At LeNotre I actually had the same teacher who taught my croissant class 8 months back, so that was cool. Macaroons are far more do-able than croissants and the results are so rewarding, so in the next few days I'm going to put up instructions. Watch this space. It was so fun to be back in a professional kitchen and to learn with people equally passionate about pastry. I mean, you can hardly discuss icing tip width with just anyone (unless you want to lose your friends as they slowly die of boredom).

I left the class on a high for sure. I found out that retraining as a pastry chef would take at least 2 years - such a long time. A part of me wishes I had done that in my early twenties, when there seemed to be so much time. 2 years was nothing. Anyway, I will definitely be making macaroons again, and I look forward to experimenting with different flavours and creating my own. Lots of fun and mess ahead!



Audrey and I met on the Champs Elysees after that and looked at books. I love French bookshops and can browse in them for hours! There is a new Laduree book out if anyone's interested. It looked very good indeed. Finally a book that divulges a bit of that Laduree magic.

I found a fascinating novel about Sephardic Jews. These are Jews who originated in Spain rather than Eastern Europe (Ashkenazic Jews). I am a mix of both, but am considered Sephardic as this goes according to the father's background. The novel is about a Sephardic Jewess whose family comes from Morocco but lives in Strasbourg. She is about to get married and it's meant to be one of the most important explorations of Sephardic culture ever written. It's a long time since I've been so tempted by a novel, so I bought it and am certain I'll talk more about it as I work my way through.

No stop at the Champs Elysees is ever complete without a visit to Sephora! We bought some face masks, took them home and enjoyed an evening of soup and makeovers. It's fun to be a girl!

The following day we started off at Mora and G. Detout, the professional baking/confectionary shops. Mora sells every conceivable item to make cakes and to decorate them. It is replete with chocolate moulds and the like. A sight to be seen to be believed. G Detout looks like a person's name but sounds like 'J'ai de tout' (I have everything). And this is true. Anything pastry-wise that you could want, G Detout has. I went to buy a few things that were recommended in the macaroon class.

Here we have a 7mm icing tip, a whisk, a mixture that is 50% ground almond 50% icing sugar, Tonka, and violet chips. The plastic things are bowl scrapers. The pastry chef told us how important it was not to waste anything and these are phenomenal at not leaving bowl and spoon lickers anything at all to taste! I wish we had equivalent shops in London.




We also went to an amazing ribbon and button store, 'la Droguerie', where we found supplies to make our own jewellery. I loved these profile discs and chose to mount them on these flower rimmed bases. I then stuck the earring attachment on the back. So easy and so beautiful in my opinion. I've already enjoyed wearing them.


Then we walked to and through the Marais, which you all know by now I love. I love all the little boutiques and the vintage finds. It's just a delicious place to spend an afternoon. Here are a few pics. 

As you can see, the cupcake trend has hit Paris. Of course, they are mini teeny cupcakes, for the teeny 'Parisiennes'!

Love Paris' rose shops



I spotted this dog, which might be the cutest thing that I have ever seen. And I love all the flower shops everywhere. It's easy to be romantic in Paris.

Then Audrey and I were ready for a break and a treat. We thought we'd head up to Le Train Bleu, a grand and highly esteemed Parisian restaurant which also serves tea and cake. Train stations don't tend to be the most salubrious places, so I didn't know what to expect. I knew about this restaurant because Marc nearly booked it for us when I was on secondment and because a blogging friend suggested it. When we got there it was like a faded glory: grand yet sad, somehow, and a little depressing.



So we didn't stay, and headed up to Laduree, which by now feels like my second home (what a privileged person I am). I tried one of their new macaroons: fig and date flavour. Since I am in love with both figs and dates, you could say that I was in heaven.

And that wrapped up a perfect two days in Paris. I loved my reunion with the city and with Audrey. But I missed home as well, and I was happy to see Marc again and delighted that he had brought me a delectable piece of chocolate cake... which I shall review next. Suffice to say that it was the best I have ever had. Au revoir Paris, je t'aime!

Pastry class at LeNotre Paris

I have no idea why I didn't ever blog about one of my most magical Parisian adventures: a croissant-making class! On my penultimate day in Paris, I treated myself to a course at LeNotre. Remember I blogged about it way back when? The fabulous patisserie that effectively introduced sumptuous French pastry to the world? It is also a professional cookery school, and thankfully they run courses for amateurs like me!

It was such a fun thing to do before leaving Paris! I was so excited with anticipation that I could hardly sleep. So many of us imagine the lovely career we could have if we could only go to pastry school and open a cake shop. Or is it just me?

Actually, the class made me realise that professional pastry making is an extremely meticulous exercise, and an extremely tiring one at that. We were taught by a wonderful, passionate, man however, in the typical French way, everything had to be 'just so'. The flour's temperature has to be measured before the mixing even occurs and at many intervals thereafter. The dough has to be left in the oven with a vessel of water underneath it, whose temperature must be precise to the degree, and periodically checked. The flour's thickness is measured, and once the dough is rolled out the triangle that will be rolled to make each croissant is measured with a ruler (yesm a ruler!) for optimum size!

The whole croissant making process is an extremely laborious and long one, taking about 12 hours! And some patisseries really do make them fresh every day. There are croissants made from frozen pastry, of course, but you can imagine the frowns that that would elicit from the pastry chefs at LeNotre. The steps are too complicated to recount and certainly too complicated to give me the will to replicate them. Not gonna happen.

I had a wonderful insight into the mystery of a professional pastry kitchen, though, to tools I had never seen, to a level of precision to which I can only aspire. I would encourage any home baker to take a class and be exposed to the stringent standards of a professional kitchen.

And the croissants? Words cannot describe the delectable joy! Anything made of 50% butter would be sumptuous, granted, but these were a delicious beyond belief. Flaky, melt-in-your-mouth, stick-to-your-thighs-forever heaven!


Just look at how beautiful they are!


Glazing
Pain au chocolat

I am in my element
I took all these home!

L'Shana Tova!

I can't believe it's already been a week since Jewish New Year! Already the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, is upon us (along with the prospect of a long fast. Oy!).

For Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) I baked a bunch of goodies - it was an interesting baking experience for me. I thought I'd use Dorie Greenspan's cookery book, because it had been gracing my shelf for quite some time without me cooking from it. I know she's a firm favourite with just about everyone but my personal opinions are mixed. For someone who does not eat milk and meat together, her book is not ideal because she seems to put cream cheese is so many things - things that, in my opinion, don't need it, like Date and Nut Loaf.

I made Date and Nut Loaf, Rugelach and Peanut Butter Cookies. A few disclaimers: I omitted the chopped peanuts from the peanut butter recipe. I made the Rugelach exactly as described in the book first time round but in all honesty I found the filling very disappointing - it just wasn't good. To be fair, Dorie does say that she expects cooks to modify this filling. So straight after I made a batch a la Dorie, I remade the whole thing with just a chocolate filling (praline and dark!). I also made mine HUGE, double the size Dorie recommends, because that's how we like them in my family, but I know that the smaller ones are more elegant. Ah, elegant shmelegant!

I gave the cookie platter to Marc's parents, who were meeting my Dad for the first time. I think it went down well!

Rugelach

4 oz. cold cream cheese, cut into 4 piece

1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp. salt

2/3 cup raspberry jam, apricot jam or marmalade

2 Tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts or almonds)

1/4 cup dried currants or chopped dried cherries

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or mini chocolate chips (or chopped regular chips)

1 large egg

1 tsp. cold water

2 Tbsp. sugar, preferably coarse

Make the dough: Put flour and salt in a food processor, and scatter the cream cheese and butter chunks overtop. Pulse the machine 6-10 times, then process, scraping down the sides as necessary. Stop when the dough forms large curds.

Turn the dough out, gather it into a ball, divide it in two, and refrigerate each half in plastic wrap for at least two hours and up to one day

Make the filling: heat the jam in a saucepan over low heat until it liquefies. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together and set aside. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone

Shape the cookies: Pull one packet of dough from the refrigerator. If it's too easy to roll, leave it out for ten minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into an 11-12 inch circle. Spoon a thin gloss of jam overtop, and sprinkle half the cinnamon sugar. Scatter over half of the chopped stuff (nuts etc), and use a piece of wax paper to press the ingredients into the dough. Set aside the paper for the second batch of dough.

Using a pizza wheel or sharp knife, slice the dough into quarters, and slice each of the quarters into four long, narrow triangles. Starting at the outside rim of each triangle (the base), roll each triangle up so that it becomes a little crescent. Make sure points are tucked under the cookie, and arrange on a baking sheet. Repeat with the second packet of dough. Refrigerate rugelach for at least 30 minutes before baking.

Position racks to divide oven into thirds, and preheat to 350 degrees. Stir the egg and water together, and brush a bit of this glaze over the rugelach. Sprinkle each with coarse sugar. (I didn't have any, so I used more cinnamon sugar.) Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating sheets from top to bottom and front to back half way through. Jam will likely have leaked out, so it's best to scoop underneath each cookie within a minute of removing them from the oven, so that they don't stick to the tray.

Peanut Butter Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of nutmeg
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup chopped salted peanuts
1/2 cup chopped milk chocolate
Raw sugar

Stir dry ingredients. Cream butter and peanut butter. Add sugar. Then eggs one at a time. Combine with dry ingredients. Fold in peanuts and chocolate.
Bake on lightly greased cookie sheets, roll cookies in raw sugar, press down with fingers or fork.
Bake for 12 minutes, cool on rack.

L'Shana Tova!

I can't believe it's already been a week since Jewish New Year! Already the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, is upon us (along with the prospect of a long fast. Oy!).

For Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) I baked a bunch of goodies - it was an interesting baking experience for me. I thought I'd use Dorie Greenspan's cookery book, because it had been gracing my shelf for quite some time without me cooking from it. I know she's a firm favourite with just about everyone but my personal opinions are mixed. For someone who does not eat milk and meat together, her book is not ideal because she seems to put cream cheese is so many things - things that, in my opinion, don't need it, like Date and Nut Loaf.

I made Date and Nut Loaf, Rugelach and Peanut Butter Cookies. A few disclaimers: I omitted the chopped peanuts from the peanut butter recipe. I made the Rugelach exactly as described in the book first time round but in all honesty I found the filling very disappointing - it just wasn't good. To be fair, Dorie does say that she expects cooks to modify this filling. So straight after I made a batch a la Dorie, I remade the whole thing with just a chocolate filling (praline and dark!). I also made mine HUGE, double the size Dorie recommends, because that's how we like them in my family, but I know that the smaller ones are more elegant. Ah, elegant shmelegant!

I gave the cookie platter to Marc's parents, who were meeting my Dad for the first time. I think it went down well!

Rugelach

4 oz. cold cream cheese, cut into 4 piece

1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp. salt

2/3 cup raspberry jam, apricot jam or marmalade

2 Tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts or almonds)

1/4 cup dried currants or chopped dried cherries

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or mini chocolate chips (or chopped regular chips)

1 large egg

1 tsp. cold water

2 Tbsp. sugar, preferably coarse

Make the dough: Put flour and salt in a food processor, and scatter the cream cheese and butter chunks overtop. Pulse the machine 6-10 times, then process, scraping down the sides as necessary. Stop when the dough forms large curds.

Turn the dough out, gather it into a ball, divide it in two, and refrigerate each half in plastic wrap for at least two hours and up to one day

Make the filling: heat the jam in a saucepan over low heat until it liquefies. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together and set aside. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone

Shape the cookies: Pull one packet of dough from the refrigerator. If it's too easy to roll, leave it out for ten minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into an 11-12 inch circle. Spoon a thin gloss of jam overtop, and sprinkle half the cinnamon sugar. Scatter over half of the chopped stuff (nuts etc), and use a piece of wax paper to press the ingredients into the dough. Set aside the paper for the second batch of dough.

Using a pizza wheel or sharp knife, slice the dough into quarters, and slice each of the quarters into four long, narrow triangles. Starting at the outside rim of each triangle (the base), roll each triangle up so that it becomes a little crescent. Make sure points are tucked under the cookie, and arrange on a baking sheet. Repeat with the second packet of dough. Refrigerate rugelach for at least 30 minutes before baking.

Position racks to divide oven into thirds, and preheat to 350 degrees. Stir the egg and water together, and brush a bit of this glaze over the rugelach. Sprinkle each with coarse sugar. (I didn't have any, so I used more cinnamon sugar.) Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating sheets from top to bottom and front to back half way through. Jam will likely have leaked out, so it's best to scoop underneath each cookie within a minute of removing them from the oven, so that they don't stick to the tray.

Peanut Butter Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of nutmeg
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup chopped salted peanuts
1/2 cup chopped milk chocolate
Raw sugar

Stir dry ingredients. Cream butter and peanut butter. Add sugar. Then eggs one at a time. Combine with dry ingredients. Fold in peanuts and chocolate.
Bake on lightly greased cookie sheets, roll cookies in raw sugar, press down with fingers or fork.
Bake for 12 minutes, cool on rack.