For the past five years these have been my go-to cookies to whip up when a sugar craving strikes. And I don't see that changing.

I first made them when I was living in Beijing, where good-tasting butter was only available at the expat supermarkets. After an afternoon of googling, I found a peanut butter cookie recipe that required neither butter nor flour.

I changed up the recipe a bit by using chunky peanut butter instead of smooth. And instead of dropping the dough onto the sheet, I used my hands to compact the dough and make smaller, denser cookies and shortened the baking time by a bit. As a result my cookies came out crunchy, whereas the picture on Cookie Madness made them look soft and chewy.

But...jackpot...these taste almost exactly like the large peanut butter cookies my father used to make at his Cantonese bakery back in Boston. The ones I would scarf down whenever I stopped by, to "visit." And since he hardly ever baked at home, I didn't really learn any of his trade secrets. (Yes, it's true that Chinese folks tend to prefer crunchier cookies, having grown up outside the cult of Nestle Tollhouse.)

RecipesDiana KuanOctober 2, 2012Cookies, Desserts, Japanese, Recipes Comments

Earl Grey Shortbread

Sometimes I bake late at night as a way to wind down after a long day of work in front of the computer. Mostly chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies, but sometimes pies, if I'm feeling a bit ambitious. (We're talking 10:30 or 11pm, after all.) Yes, there are countless nutritionists who'll tell you that late-night eating is bad for you. But I'll go out on a limb and claim that smelling freshly baked cookies close to bedtime and even eating one or two has the same soothing effect that a glass of milk before bed does.

Lately, though, I've been switching gears and baking shortbread instead. I don't know why shortbread hasn't been on the regular rotation until now. It's such a simple thing to whip up, and pretty quick, even with the time it takes to chill the dough. Laurie Colwin called it "the essence of butter". Yet, it doesn't feel as heavy as a cookie loaded with chocolate chips. Whether that is a good or bad thing is up to you.

Last week for a blogger potluck at Gojee's headquarters in Soho, I made a batch of Earl Grey Shortbread with bits of Earl Grey tea spotting throughout. Like the other great blogger dishes - Kian's Yunnan-style shrimp fried rice, Veronica's Goan shrimp curry, Chitra 's curried and creamed kale, Cathy's vegetarian chili, and Paul and Steve's cheddar-blue fricos, Barb's tiramisu, and a handful of others - it was gone by the end of the night, except for a few crumbs.