The Cake Doctor

Dear Cake Doctor

I’m bored of my job and bullied by my boss. Please prescribe some baked goods to keep my mine off this misery until the economy picks up and I can find a new employer.

Love,

Dear Fed Up

It sounds as though you’re stuck in an occupational rut. Depressed, discouraged, dissatisfied. And, given recent events, the light at the end of the tunnel still seems awfully far away doesn’t it? Until you do find your dream job, I’m prescribing you something that’s easy to prepare, deliciously nutty, and certain to give you back your giggle: snickers cookies!

Snickers cookies are golden rounds of oaty, peanutty, chocolaty joy. They’re slightly crunchy on the outside, deliciously chewy on the inside, with a chunk of chocolate or a shard of peanut in every bite. You won’t be able to help breaking out in a smile, and maybe even a small fit of giggles, as you delight in this delicious, classic combination. Your work woes may even seem less significant and your day a little brighter (just don’t let your boss catch you snickering!)

Love,

Complaint: In need of a giggle

Prescription: snickers cookies (inspired by Two Peas & Their Pod’s peanut butter oatmeal sandwich cookies)

Ingredients

100g plain flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

125g unsalted butter, at room temperature (or, fridge cold, softened in the microwave for 30 seconds)

125g crunchy peanut butter

110g caster sugar

100g light brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup porridge oats

200g milk chocolate, broken into chunks

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line a tray with baking paper.

Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a small bowl and set aside.

Put the softened butter, peanut butter, caster sugar and brown sugar into a large bowl, and cream until light and fluffy.

You can use a freestanding electric mixer (use the ‘paddle’ attachment), a handheld electric whisk, or just a wooden spoon. ‘Creaming’ creates air bubbles in the mixture, which will make your cookies lighter and chewier on the inside. The mix will increase in volume a little and the butter should pale.

Then add the egg and vanilla extract and continue to mix well.

Now remove the bowl from the electric mixer, or change to a spatula if you were using a wooden spoon.

Tip the bowl of sifted dried ingredients over the butter, sugar and egg mix and incorporate thoroughly, but gently, using a spatula so as not to ‘overmix’. Overmixing after the dry ingredients have been put in toughens the proteins in the flour and produces a denser, heavier end result.

Now, add the oats and chopped up chocolate and mix through gently but thoroughly, until all ingredients are incorporated.

Take ‘fingerfuls’ (slightly more than a tablespoonful), roll them into balls, flatten a little, and place on the prepared baking tray. Make sure you leave some space between each cookie so it has room to spread out.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are slightly golden around the edges. Don’t worry if the cookies don’t look entirely set when you take them out of the oven – they’ll continue to cook a little as they sit and cool.

After about 5 minutes, the cookies should be sufficiently set to move to a rack to cool completely – although they’re delicious devoured while still warm.

These tasty, chewy morsels of chocolate and peanuts will have you giggling in delight in no time – enjoy!

Love,

The Cake Doctor x