AHOT (Austin Heart of Texas) Event AHOT, an organization for printed circuit board design professionals, recently held its annual Vendor Day. It was well-attended—maybe 100ish. Renowned speaker Tom Hausherr, EDA Library Product Manager at Mentor Graphics Corporation, delivered 4 different presentations. The event had 16 sponsors this year, up from 12 last year. You can download the announcement pdf with hyperlinks to the sponsors and speaker if you are on LinkedIn.
Cooky Musings
I decided to take in cookies as I did last year. I'd been wanting to try out a boxed peanut butter cookie mix. Both Krusteaz and Betty Crocker put out a peanut butter cookie mix. Each brand's box contents weigh 17.5 ounces and call for 1 egg, 1 T water, and 3 T oil. The standard yield is 36 2-inch diameter cookies. (I myself wound up with 44.)
I like PB cookies okay, but think of them as somewhat boring. I decided to turbocharge the peanut flavor. I started out mixing the batter according to the box instructions, then added peanuts and Wilton Peanut Butter Flavor Candy Melts—for sale at bakery supply stores and craft shops. Other than dose up the flavor with chopping up and mixing in the two additives, I didn't modify the box recipe.
After I removed a baked batch out of the oven, I was surprised that the chopped candies seemed to have disappeared. I anticipated they would be like chocolate chips or chocolate chunks and be visible. I'm not that knowledgeable about the Wilton candies, but it's possible that they might have a lower melting temperature than chocolate chips and just melted into the cookies during baking. In any case, I received rave reviews for the hefty peanut flavor.
It did take me awhile to settle on a name, although I kicked around other titles, such as "Xtra P-nutty PB Cookies", PB and Pnutty Madness Cookies", "P-nut Trio Cookies", "Triple P-nut cookies", and "P-nut Trilogy". Ed E, a Vendor Day attendee and enthusiastic praiser of my cookies, was the one who suggested "P-nut Trilogy".
Ingredients
To keep the recipe looking uncomplicated, I've listed a somewhat compressed list of ingredients. People experienced enough with cooky baking will have no problems whipping up a batch. Novices might need to peruse the list a little more closely.
- 1 pkg peanut butter cooky mix, ingredients stirred together per instructions (usually requiring combining of water, egg, oil)
- 4 oz. peanuts, coarsely chopped
- 4 oz peanut butter flavored candies, coarsely chopped (e.g., Wilton brand)
Equipment
- cooky pan(s)
- pastry blender
- bowl
- measuring cup
- measuring spoon(s)
- small rubber spatula
- cooky spatula to lift and transfer baked cookies
- cooling rack for done cookies
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Pour the cooky mix powder into a medium-large mixing bowl.
- In a cup, combine the egg, water, and oil.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the larger container and use a pastry blender to stir the ingredients together.
- Stir in the chopped peanuts.
- Stir in the chopped candies.
- Use a round tablespoon to scoop the dough, then level it.
- Use the spatula to turn and drop the spoon's dough onto the cooky sheet. (This dough was very dense. After a few dollops, I put on vinyl gloves to shape and dispense the dollops individually.)
- Flatten and spread the dough using the bottom of a glass.
- Bake for about 8 minutes.
- Use the cooky spatula to lift and transfer the done cookies onto cooling rack.
