NUTTY ABOUT PEANUT BUTTER

GOOBER GOOP HAS ITS SHARE OF OBSESSIVE DEVOTEES

By Sara Sullivan

Posted: November 4, 2009 at 4:01 a.m.

Anthony Reyes
Bake up some Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies in honor of November as Peanut Butter Lovers’ Month.

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FAYETTEVILLE — While the month of November is already one of the greatest food months of the year (what with that whole Thanksgiving holiday and all), would you believe that it can get even better?

November also happens to be Peanut Butter Lovers’ Month!

(Not to be confused with National Peanut Month in March, National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day on April 2, or National Peanut Day on Sept. 13.) The celebration was established in the early ’90s by the Southern Peanut Growers, formerly the Peanut Advisory Board, because November is the month in which John Harvey Kellogg (of the cereal fame) obtained the first patent for peanut butter in 1895.

People’s feelings towardpeanut butter typically belong to one of two camps: those who are relatively indifferent (or allergic) and those who are obsessivelydevoted. Actual dislike is rare.

“Pretty much everybody loves peanut butter,” said Leslie Wagner, executive directorof Southern Peanut Growers.

“Here in the U.S., we kind of associate it with good feelings from childhood,” like memories of peanut butter sandwiches for lunch or peanut butter cookies as an after-school snack.

About half of the peanut crop grown in the United States is used for peanut butter, she said.

“We like our peanut butter here.

As well we should!”

Peanut butter goes with almost everything: chocolate, celery, bananas, marshmallow creme, chicken, toast, crackers, apples - you name it.

“Peanut butter is fantastic because it is so versatile,” Wagner said. “You can have peanut butter as a spicy entree or you can have it as the sweetest dessert.” And it can be eaten at any time of the day, “breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack.”

Peanut butter is nutrient-dense, high-protein, shelf-stable and inexpensive, and its sales have been going up during these tough economic times, Wagner said.

But more important than any of the goober goop’s other attributes is its incomparable taste. Its luscious, salty-sweet, matte-fi nished thickness has won peanut butter shelf space in about 75 percent of American homes, according to the Southern Peanut Farmers’ Web site, www.peanutbutterlovers.com.

Needless to say, I reside in the camp of peanut butter adorers. On sandwiches, in cookies, with fruit, by itself on a spoon: it is the distillation of comfort food.

And it shines brightest when starring in these insanely delicious Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies, which were the $1-million winner of the 2008 Pillsbury Bake-Off. With peanut butter cookie dough wrapped around a soft peanut butter filling, then rolled in a cinnamonsugar mixture, they are easily one of the best peanut butter cookies ever made. Definitely worth the million!

I find the original recipe a bit di◊cult as the slices of refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough called for tend to fall apart on me as they warm; but if you substitute a pouch of Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix (sorry, Pillsbury), things get a whole lot simpler.

Bake up one more reason to love November.

Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts

3/4 cup peanut butter

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 (17.5-ounce) peanut butter cookie mix

1 tablespoon water

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 egg

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line bakingsheets with parchment paper.

In a very small bowl, mix the granulated sugar, cinnamon and chopped peanuts, and set aside. In another bowl, mix the peanut butter and powdered sugar until well blended; roll into about 24 1-inch balls and set aside on waxed or parchment paper. In a third bowl, make the cookie mix according to the package directions, using the water, oil and egg.

Take a chunk of the cookie dough (about a 1 1/2-inch ball) and flatten it in the palm of your hand. (The oil from the mix should keep it from sticking.) Take one of the prepared peanut butter-sugar balls and wrap the flattened dough around it completely. Roll it in the sugar-cinnamon-nuts mixture, and place on the parchment-lined baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough and fi lling balls, placing about 2 inches apart on the sheets.

Using your hands, flatten the filled dough balls to about a 1/2-inch thickness, pressing any stray or extra chopped peanuts into the dough. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to a cookie rack to cool completely. Store tightly covered. (That is, if there are any left over. At my house, they normally don’t make it to the cooled completely stage; be sure you have plenty of cold milk nearby.) Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

- ADAPTED FROM 2008 PILLSBURY BAKE-OFF WINNER CAROLYN GURTZ

News, Pages 12 on 11/04/2009

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