Nutty Butter Cookies and Pieke Dassen

If you enjoy the taste of  nuts and butter in your cookies and if you are looking for a cookie recipe that contains your favorite nut butter with some added crunch from chopped nuts and oats,  you will certainly enjoy the taste of the Nutty Butter Cookies.

This recipe does not necessarily have to contain peanut butter. It can be adapted to a nut butter of your choice, I baked these cookies using almond butter and chopped almonds. The dough also contains oats that are toasted in butter before they are being mixed into the dough, that enhances the nutty flavor of the cookie and adds an extra bit of crunchiness.


Recipe for Nutty Butter Cookies
(as adapted from MSL, April 2012)

Ingredients

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature, softened
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup plus 2 tbsp AP flour (you could also use whole wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
one pinch of fine sea salt
1/3 cup superfine sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 package pure vanilla sugar (you can also use 2 tsp pure vanilla extract)
1 egg (L)
1/2 cup almond nut butter (you can also use a different nut butter such as peanut butter)
1/2 cup chopped almonds  (you can also use different nuts such as peanuts but remember to stick with one type of nut/nut butter per cookie batch)

Preparation

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt one 1/2 stick butter then add the oats, and cook, stirring, until toasted, about five minutes.
2. Spread the oat mixture on a parchment-lined baking sheet and let cool for a few minutes.
3. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
5. With a mixer on medium high speed, beat together the remaining stick of butter, the sugars and the vanilla sugar until the butter mixture turns pale and fluffy.
6. Add the egg, and beat until combined., then add the nut butter of your choice, and beat on medium speed until well combined.
7. Add the oat mixture and  the chopped nuts of your choice, and beat on low speed until combined, then add the flour mixture, and beat until combined.
8. Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls or use an ice cream scoop and place cookie dough on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets.
9. Bake until golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely on baking sheets before transferring to wire racks.

Note: These cookies keep well for about a week if stored in cookie tins.







I took these pictures of my cookies at the back of the tourist information centre in Maastricht, The Netherlands. The wall painting in my photos is dedicated to Pieke Dassen, a well-known Dutch actor, puppeteer, singer and painter, who was born in 1926 in Rotterdam, lived and worked in Maastricht until his death in 2007.

For more information:
Pieke Dassen: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieke_Dassen
Maastricht Tourist Information Centre: http://www.vvvmaastricht.nl/home.html