Friday, March 9, 2012

Virginia Matties

Since these cookies are not exactly the traditional Madeleine cookies, I did not to call them that.  The flavor of these cookies are peanut butter and chocolate, I did some research and found out that the first peanut farm in the US was in Virginia, so I named them accordingly.

When I set out to do these, I wanted a cookie that really had some pop of peanut flavor.  With all the different flours out there, I could not resist in trying the peanut flour.  I have used nut flours before with wonderful results.

The peanut flour really did the trick.  I made these with regular flour and peanut to compare.  I have to say that I would not make these without the peanut flour.  It adds such a depth of flavor to these, it was well worth seeking out and finding this unique ingredient.

Virginia Matties
by flourtrader

Special Equipment
2 madeleine pans, 12 cavities each

Ingredients
1/4 cup plus 2 tbs creamy peanut butter
6 tbs butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup peanut flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
6-8 oz of bittersweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease pan cavities with melted butter.

Sift together flour and salt, set aside.  In a separate bowl, whip eggs for about 1 minute or until frothy.  Add the sugar and whip for 5 minutes.  Mixture should become pale and thick.

Place a saucepan over medium heat and melt butter.  Add the peanut butter and extract, mixing until smooth.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the whipped eggs and stir until blended.  Continue with this process for 2 more intervals until all the flour is mixed in.  Then pour in the peanut butter and stir until smooth.

Fill each cavity 3/4 full with the batter and smooth the top.  After all 24 cavities are filled place each pan on top of a cookie sheet.  Put in oven to bake for 7 minutes.  Then rotate pans from top to bottom and back to front.  Bake for an additional 6-7 minutes.  Tops will spring back when lightly touched.

Remove and invert onto rack to finish cooling. 

Once the cookies have cooled, set up a double boiler and melt chocolate.  Dip the cookies or drizzle chocolate on top. Place on wax paper.  Let cookies set for about 2 hours for the chocolate to harden and then they are ready to eat.

Tips:
Only make enough batter for pans you can fill and bake at one time.  Due to the melted butter in the batter, leaving it sit and letting it cool will cause it to seize.

If you have a non-stick pan, lightly spray with cooking spray.  Over doing it will make for a greasy cookie.

Make sure your batter is smoothed out in the cavities.  Uneven batter will produce cookies that do not lay flat.
                       **LAST YEAR: Cheddar Soda Bread**