Homemade Nutter Butters

Oreos may be the store-bought cookie of choice for many in the world but I'm proud to be in the minority with my preference for Nutter Butters, the delicious peanut butter sandwich cookies.  I'm a huge peanut butter fan so these cookies are right up my alley.  When I saw that Stella Parks had included a recipe for a homemade version of Nutter Butters in her fantastic cookbook, BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts, I bookmarked the pages for a future baking project.  No better time than the present, especially when we're still under shelter in place orders for the next few months, at least!

The cookie is a thin and crispy peanut flavored shortbread, but in my opinion the real star is the whipped peanut butter creme filling.  Made with butter, peanut butter, honey, vanilla, salt and powdered sugar, the creme is a peanut lover's dream!  I could seriously just eat the creme on its own and it would also be amazing as a frosting for cake or cupcakes.

The sandwiched cookies are pretty darn close to the original from Nabisco, if I do say so myself.  In all honesty I won't be making homemade Nutter Butters frequently because it's much easier to just buy a small pack at the store, but it was a fun project!

Yeasted Doughnuts

Deep fat frying at home is one of those things I've tended to shy away from.  Mainly because I hate the cleanup and then what to do with all that used oil afterwards?  However, one glance at the Yeasted Doughnuts recipe in the May/June 2020 issue of Cook's Illustrated magazine and all those concerns went out the window.  They looked A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  Chalk it up to the COVID crazies but I even bought an electric deep fat fryer just so that I could make the doughnuts.

I don't have a huge sweet tooth (I normally prefer salty things) but I would never turn down a good doughnut.  My favorite kinds are powdered sugar, regular glazed or chocolate frosted (sometimes with sprinkles).  With the aid of my trusty stand mixer the dough came together quite easily.   The enriched dough rests in the fridge for up to 48 hours so this is a great make-ahead recipe.

 

Each recipe makes a dozen doughnuts and some little holes as well and I made two batches. For my doughnut flavors I went with classic glazed, chocolate frosted, coffee frosted and filled.  For some of the filled doughnuts I used homemade raspberry jam that I had made a few weeks ago.  Considering that I also love pineapple I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by to fill the rest with the most delicious pineapple filling.  Surprisingly though, out of all the flavors I think my favorite was the coffee frosted.  I'm not a huge coffee drinker but I loved how the bitterness of the espresso powder was a nice balance to the sweet frosting.

One bite of the glazed doughnut and I was in heaven!  It was so light and fluffy, exactly like what you would find in your local shop.   I ended up giving away the rest of the doughnuts to my friends because I was too afraid to keep them in the house, lest I eat more!