Fruitful weekend.....

I'm happy because the weekend was quite a fruitful one for me. Yesterday, besides doing the usual Saturday routine, I also baked 2 types of cookies & went shopping at Arab Street! Hmm.... no wonder I'm happy, I did my two favourite activities...haha... Actually, the shopping was for my girls. They needed to get a few pieces of fabric for their traditional costumes, so naturally for us, the place to go is Arab Street, the fabric haven of Singapore!  The last time they had new Malay costumes was two years ago. So it's high time for new additions since there're a couple of weddings to attend & besides, we'll also be celebrating Hari Raya in less than 5 months!

The past few weeks, for some reasons, I've been thinking of making  shortbread  & peanut cookies, although I'm not a big fan of peanut cookies. So I googled for a recipe & decided to bake Peanut Butter Shortbread by Eileen. Mixed the dough & baked the cookies yesterday & this morning, did the dipping & sprinkling.

The shortbread was delicious. They looked great too... the only problem is the chocolate coating was still slightly wet & sticky even after a few hours. Maybe the recipe Eileen used for the chocolate topping is not suitable for our humid climate.... Eileen also used Fleur de Sel to sprinkle on top but I used sea salt from Australia....haha. I also sprinkled chopped peanuts..

Peanut Butter Shortbread with Salted Chocolate
Source: Living Tastefully

Dough:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1. Beat together the butter and peanut butter with mixer at medium speed until smooth. ( I used hand whisk.) Gradually add sugar, beating well. Stir in the vanilla.
2. Combine the flour and salt. Gradually add to the butter mixture, beating at low speed until blended.
3. Divide the dough in half and place each half onto a piece of plastic wrap. Roll into two logs, wrap in the plastic and refrigerate until firm. (I formed dough into balls, each weighing 10g, place them on a cookie sheet & pressed them with a folk, one at a time.)
4. Preheat the oven to 275˚F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator and slice the logs 3/8-inch thick. Place each slice onto cookie sheet leaving a 1-inch space between each cookie. Place one baking sheet in the middle of the oven and the other baking sheet on the rack directly below. Bake the cookies for 40 minutes or until the cookies are nicely browned, switching the baking sheets after 20 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.

Topping:
4 ounces good quality chocolate- milk, semi-sweet, or bittersweet

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus additional butter if needed to thin chocolate

Fleur de Sel, for sprinkling
Chopped roasted peanut (I added.)

When the cookies have cooled, melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, making sure the bowl does not touch the water. Add butter until the chocolate is a good consistency for dipping. Dip half of each cookie into the melted chocolate and place on a parchment-lined sheet. Sprinkle chocolate immediately with a few grains of Fleur de Sel.