Just the Recipe: Peanut Butterscotch Chews
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Peanut Butterscotch Chews
The batter is made quickly in a saucepan. Be sure not to overbake. The cookies must be moist and chewy. The cookies are very moist, not too sweet, and–let me warn you–it’s hard to stop eating them.
Ingredients
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour stir flour, dip in dry measure to overflowing and sweep off excess; 5 ounces by weight
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts (2 ½ ounces), chopped medium-fine
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 stick; 2 ounces
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (7 ounces), light or dark
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the center position, and preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and set aside.
- Sift the flour with the cinnamon, soda, and salt 3 times; set aside.
- Measure the peanuts and then chop with a large chef’s knife until medium fine; set aside.
- Melt the butter in a heavy 2- to 3-quart saucepan over medium-low heat.
- Add the brown sugar and stir constantly with a wooden spoon for 1 minute, until the sugar smells toasty. The sugar and butter will be thick and pasty looking.
- Add the heavy cream and raise the heat to medium.
- Stir occasionally as the mixture comes to the boil. As soon as the boil is reached (the surface is covered with thick bubbles), boil for exactly 1 minute, stirring once or twice.
- Remove the pan from the heat and cool the butterscotch until it feels warm, about 10 minutes.
- Beat in the egg with the wooden spoon until smooth, then beat in the vanilla.
- Stir in the dry ingredients only until incorporated, then stir in the peanuts.
- Spread the batter evenly in the pan.
- Bake about 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with a few wet crumbs sticking to it. Do not overbake. These cookies should be very moist.
- Set the pan on a wire rack to cool. The sides of the baked “cake” will be higher than the center.
- In about 5 minutes, tamp down the sides of the “cake” with your fingertips to level it with the center.
- Cool completely and cut into squares.
- Store airtight. These keep well for a few days at room temperature.