Day 9/30: Peanut butter cookies recipe

So, yesterday I baked the cookies that made me go all linguistic and etymological and what not. They’re rather interesting, I think – apart from the purely linguistic aspect – in that they don’t contain any flour, and still manage to be darn good cookies.

• Ingredients:
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg
• Preparation:
• Preheat the oven to 180°C
• Combine all the ingredients well together
• Roll small dough balls and put on a baking sheet
• They really shouldn’t be too big as the cookies will get flatter and bigger in the oven
• For the same reason, leave some space between them on the sheet
• Bake the cookies for some 10 minutes, until they start looking good
• Which is a valid and very scientific way of determining the length of the process
• Leave them for a few more minutes to cool down on the rack

Immediately after baking they’ll be rather soft, presenting quite a serious danger – one might think they’re TOO soft and need a few more minutes in the oven… Well, they don’t… That’s the whole point of leaving them alone for a while to cool down. They’ll get all crispy then, assuming they’ll be REALLY left alone…

Day 7/30: Blueberry pie recipe

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of blueberries, or any berries in this respect. Most of the year, I vehemently ignore their existence. I also could name a thousand pastimes more exciting than picking blueberries… But I somehow got stuck in the forest anyway, and gathered almost 1.5 litres of them in the last two days. There’s something special about picking berries, despite (thanks to?) all the complimentary forest-y attractions like ants, spiders and the hard ground under my ass, not to mention the pain of bending / crouching over the tiny bushes.

But I think I’ll continue tomorrow. After all, it’s free food, growing like that in the forest near me – and not just any food, as blueberries are supposed to be freakishly healthy. And if there’s any way to make some healthy food even healthier, putting it into a pie definitely counts. I ate half of it still hot, and I’m not a big fan of blueberries in the first place.

• Ingredients
  • for the crust:
    • 100 grams butter
    • 180 grams flour
    • 80 grams sugar
    • 1 egg
    • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • for the filling:
    • 1/2 litre blueberries
    • 40 grams sugar
    • zest from half a lemon
    • 1/2 tablespoon potato starch
• Make the magic happen
  • Preheat the oven to 200˚C
  • Mix all the crust ingredients and knead them into a soft dough
  • Put aside some 1/3 of the dough and line a pie dish with the rest
  • Prebake the crust for about 5 minutes so that it doesn’t soggy once the filling is added
  • Carefully mix the berries with the other filling ingredients
  • Put the filling onto the crust
  • Take the dough you’ve put aside and either sprinkle it over the pie or make a decorative lattice
  • Bake the pie for about 20-30 minutes
  • When it’s ready, do leave it alone for a few minutes!