For the Love of Peanut Butter

The Picky Eater reports that she has resumed her romance with peanut butter. The current object of her affections is Butterscotch Peanut Butter purchased at Kauffman's in the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. She stores it in the tea pantry down the hall in the dorm, takes it to the dining hall to slather on her morning bagel, and dips in for a spoonful or two when she's feeling peckish.


The Picky Eater is so fond of Kauffman's peanut butter that she took the time to send me a link to their online sales site. Sadly, butterscotch only appears to be available in situ, but the Picky Eater is confident that I will enjoy the honey roasted or chocolate flavors equally as well. Just in case all this talk has you craving fresh ground peanut butter, here's the website link:

http://www.kauffmansfruitfarm.com/standard/store/grid1.aspx?id=%20%20159

Due to a well-meaning, but misguided mother, the Picky Eater lost her taste (burn out) for PB & J school lunch sandwiches in second grade. Thereafter followed the chocolate lunch years- a container of Brown Cow full fat chocolate yogurt for breakfast and lunch almost every day for about eight years, rather like eating pudding two meals a day. Foolishly, Brown Cow downscaled their packaging and the thin foil tops caused one too many chocolate yogurt leaks in the backpack, and that was the end of that revenue stream. While PB & J never really took hold again as a school lunch staple, it did slowly creep back into her diet during the high school years. She and her dad are both happy to eat it spread on whatever bread product is lying around. The Picky Eater, as would be expected, is selective in her choice of jelly/jams; she opts for Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry, while her dad, with the exception of orange marmalade, uses whatever jar is almost empty. This is what Bonne Maman has to say about its Wild Blueberry Preserves:

"The distinctive allure of wild blueberries in a velvety-sweet gel creates an entirely delightful and robust blueberry experience."

Nice to think that there are childhood comfort foods that last a lifetime.

Musings on Peanut Butter
Writing about peanut butter naturally leads to a lot of thinking about peanut butter, which in my case took two directions- "Where did it come from?" and "What should I cook with it?" For the answer to the first question I consulted Harold McGee's 1st (1984) and 2nd (2004) editions of On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen. In the first edition Mr. McGee tells us that over half the peanuts used in the United States are made into peanut butter which is mostly eaten by children. The 2nd edition adds that peanut butter was developed around 1890 in either St. Louis or Battle Creek, Michigan (by the same Kelloggs of Rice Krispies fame), and how it is processed, including the addition of 3-5% hydrogenated shortening in commercial brands like Skippy to prevent oil separation.

There are other considerations when it comes to peanut butter -  smooth or chunky?, hydrogenated or natural? The first is just a matter of preference, with most children, it seems to me, coming down on the side of smooth. With the latter one must pick one's poison -  bad-for-you hydrogenated oils or the aggravation of peanut oil dripping down the sides of the jar and slopped on the kitchen counter, leaving behind a dry, unspreadable mass in the jar.
Our 1975 edition of Joy of Cooking warns against the limited nutritional value of commercial peanut butters which do not contain the protein rich germ of the nut due to its propensity to taste bitter and turn rancid. Joy recommends making your own at home:
Homemade Peanut Butter
In a blender or food processor combine 1 cup of fresh roasted or salted skinned peanuts, 1 1/2 - 2 Tb flavorless vegetable oil, and 1/2 tsp salt. Process until as smooth as desired. refrigerate and use within 2 weeks.

Cooking with Peanut Butter
Peanut butter's strong and distinctive flavor puts some limitations on it's use in cooking. Anything you make with peanut butter is absolutely going to taste like peanut butter with a few other flavorings on the side. So, recipes tend to blend it with other strong flavors- both sweet and savory- chocolate, garlic, red pepper, vinegar, soy sauce. Truth be told, around our house most peanut butter is consumed au natural. One recipe that I have made in large, i.e. 20 pound, quantities is this ...

Thai Noodle Salad

12 oz. linguine
4 Tb Asian sesame oil
8 green onions, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tb minced peeled fresh ginger
1/4 c. honey
1/4 c. creamy peanut butter
1/4 c. soy sauce
3 Tb unseasoned rice vinegar
1 1/2 Tb chili-garlic sauce
Additions (your choice):
2 c. mung bean sprouts
1 c. finely shredded carrots
1 thinly sliced red or yellow bell pepper chunks
1/2 English cucumber, sliced into 1/4' x 1" pieces
1 c. sugar snap peas, sliced into 1" pieces
Chopped cilantro to garnish

Cook the pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Transfer the pasta to large bowl, and add 3 tablespoons sesame oil and toss to coat.

Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 6 green onions, garlic, and ginger; sauté until onions soften, about 2 minutes. Add honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, and chili-garlic sauce; whisk to blend. Simmer sauce 1 minute. Cool to room temperature. Pour over pasta and toss to coat. Add additional vegetables of choice and mix well, or mound with vegetables on a platter (see photo.) Sprinkle with the remaining green onions and chopped cilantro if desired. Makes 8 side-dish servings.

Cookies!!

Always willing to experiment in the name of a good cause, I devoted a day to trying a few new peanut butter recipes. First, the obvious- Peanut butter cookies. After comparing recipes in America's Test Kitchen's The New Best Recipe, David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert, Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts, The Village Baker's Wife by Gayle and Joe Ortiz, and on Martha Stewart's eponymous website, I decided to modify the already tweaked-to-death ATK recipe with some suggestions from David Lebovitz, and this is the result:

Left to right: Chocolate chip, plain and peanut butter and jelly, and M&M peanut butter cookies.
Our taste testers voted the chocolate chip version "best of show."

Peanut Butter Cookies 
(with variations- Chocolate Chip or M&M Peanut Butter Cookies or Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints)
note: This cookie dough should be refrigerated at least 2 hours before baking.
Makes about 36 cookies

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp.baking powder
1 tsp. salt
8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup white sugar, plus extra for baking
1 cup crunchy peanut butter (ATK recommends a commercial hydrogenated brand- just this once!)
2 lg. eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup salted, dry-roasted peanuts, ground to resemble breadcrumbs
Optional: 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, or 1 1/2 cups M&M's, or for Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints - 1/2 cup strawberry (or flavor of choice) jam (should be thick)

Stir the flour, baking soda and powder, and salt together in a bowl and set aside.

Beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat in the peanut butter, then the eggs one at a time, and the vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture and then the ground peanuts, both until just incorporated, along with the chocolate chips or M&M's, if using.

Refrigerate the dough for two hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and arrange the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Put about 1/2 cup of sugar in a wide, shallow bowl.

Pinch off pieces of dough and roll them into one inch balls. Drop the cookie balls into the sugar, and shake them around to cover in sugar. Place them about 3 inches apart on the cookie sheets. If making plain peanut butter cookies,  flatten each slightly and make a crosshatch pattern with the back of the tines of a fork.

Bake, about 15-18 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets halfway through baking, until the cookies are brown around the edges but still look uncooked in the middle (to maintain their chewiness). When the cookies seem firm enough to handle, move them to wire racks to cool.

For Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints, bake the cookies until they look puffy, about 10 minutes. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and make an indentation in the center of each cookie with the handle end of a wooden spoon. Bake about 5-8 minutes more, until the edges are golden, and cool as directed above.

When the cookies are completely cool, heat the jam in a small saucepan, stirring until it has just softened, about 30 seconds. Spoon about 1/2 tsp of jam into the center of each cookie. Store in a single layer for up to one week.

Peanut Butter Makes a Meal
With a veggie noodle salad and a dessert, it made sense to make a meal of it. Hence, a recipe for...

Beef and Chicken Satay Skewers

1 lb. boneless beef (my household meat expert recommends sirloin or chuck- we used London Broil and it was a little tough)
2 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts
7" wooden skewers
Double recipe of teriyaki marinade (recipe below)
Satay peanut sauce (recipe below)

Prepare the marinade. Slice the beef against the grain into 1/4" wide strips and place it in a container with 1/2 of the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for at least three hours or overnight.

Slice the chicken breasts lengthwise into long thin strips. Place them in a second container with the remainder of the marinade. Also cover and refrigerate for three hours or overnight.
Soak the skewers in water while the meat is marinating.

When ready to cook, preheat the broiler with the oven rack about 5" from the heating element. Thread the meats on the skewers and lay the skewers on the slotted upper rack of a foil lined broiling pan,  placing the blunt ends of the skewers along the outside edge of the rack. Brush the meat with the marinade. Broil the skewers for about 7 minutes, turn them, baste with marinade and broil on the second side for 5-7 minutes, until the meat is browned on the edges and cooked through (the beef should be medium rare inside). Cooking time may vary depending upon your oven.

One pound of meat makes about 8 skewers. Serve with peanut satay sauce.

Teriyaki Marinade

6 scallions, chopped

1/2 c. soy sauce 

5 cloves garlic, crushed

2 Tb oil 

2 Tb brown sugar

2 Tb sherry 

1 Tb sesame oil   

pepper 

Optional additions: 2 Tb cilantro, chopped, 1 tsp. ground cumin (best with the beef) and/or 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

 Combine the marinade ingredients in a bowl. Add meat or chicken and marinate several hours or overnight. Use for boneless chicken breasts, chicken pieces, or beef. After marinating, the meat can be grilled, broiled, or baked. Brush the meat with marinade during cooking. 

Makes enough for 1 lb. of meat.   

Peanut Satay Sauce

This is a nice medley of flavors that doesn't allow the peanut butter to predominate. And, a yummy way to enjoy peanut butter without having it stick to the roof of your mouth!

Adapted from a Martha Stewart cold noodle recipe.

1 large clove of garlic

a 3/4" piece of ginger

1 Tb (or more to taste) chile sauce

7 Tb smooth peanut butter

3 Tb sugar

4 Tb vegetable oil (not olive)

2 Tb rice vinegar or the juice of one lime (whichever you have in the cupboard)

4 Tb water

Peel and halve both the garlic and the ginger. Process them together in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the remaining ingredients and pulse until smooth. Additional water can be added for a thinner sauce.

What's your favorite peanut butter? Or favorite peanut butter recipe? Send in your nominations and they will be published in a future blog. Best recipe entry will win a PDF copy of An Edible Life: Memories and Recipes.