Since Tug is not a big fan of things sweet, it can be rather challenging finding a food-related Valentine’s Day gift. (He doesn’t have such difficulties. This morning I was greeted with a gift bag of Reese’s peanut butter cups, three Lindt chocolate bars – chocolate chile, dark chocolate sea salt and white chocolate coconut – and a bag of Lindt white chocolate truffles.) There are the rare occasions when he’ll nibble on a small piece of dark chocolate, or eat a cookie or two, but they are indeed rare occasions. I had thought about making brownies and cutting them into hearts, but he may have eaten one, two if I was lucky. Instead, I made him something I know he really likes: bread. The man is an absolute carbohydrate junkie when it comes to bread.
He was pretty happy with the focaccia I made last month, so that’s what I chose to make him for Valentine’s Day. Baked in a heart-shaped pan of course. And I made dinner.
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| focaccia baked in Wilton's (retired) puffed heart pan |
Since I had all of those peanut butter cups though, I decided to make this recipe from Katie at Making Michael Pollan Proud. When I first read it I nearly drooled on my keyboard. For the most part I followed the recipe. You know I have a problem in that regard. What I did differently was use seven peanut butter cups (because I neurotically don’t like even numbers) and since I only had old-fashioned oats instead of rolled oats, I measured out one cup and gave them a buzz in the food processor then mixed them in with the other dry ingredients. I find old-fashioned oats are just a little bit too toothsome in cookies. The final thing I did differently was after mixing in the dry ingredients I switched to the dough hook attachment to mix in the chocolate chips and chopped peanut butter cups. It worked like a charm to mix them in without crushing them.
After baking and cooling them, I boxed up almost all of them for Tug to take to work tomorrow. These are so good that I have to get them out of the house. Katie suggested that they freeze well so she freezes them to keep from eating them. I have a feeling I would eat these frozen!
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| I couldn't resist pressing the last few scoops of dough into one of my heart-shape cookie cutters. Yes, I am a dork when it comes to Valentine's Day! |
