Sweet and Salty Peanut Biscuits

It should be said that my passion for baking is somewhat at odds with the healthy eating regime newly instituted at home. And so it is that the merest hint of a visitor is taken as a welcome excuse to divert from the straight and narrow and sends me scurrying to the kitchen to get my pinny on.

I had been meaning to try this recipe for a while, a whim based somewhat tenuously on my addiction to Peanut Butter M&Ms (thankfully not widely available in the UK otherwise I would end up looking like Giant Haystacks circa 1974). Nonetheless in my book salty peanut/butter plus sugar is a winning combination so how could I resist?

As there were to be just four adults consuming said treat (toddler participation vetoed on grounds of nuts = potential choking hazard) I figured I'd halve the recipe. But then the very thought of having to work out what constituted half an egg sent me all gung-ho and I threw caution to the wind and went for it verbatim..

Thirty biscuits? No prob - we'll get through 'em in no time (close eyes to try to block out Giant Haystacks images that are back to taunt me...)

There were unexpected issues in tracking down Trex - which, when finally sighted in a local megastore appeared to come only in industrial quantities - but it was worth the hunt (trek/s?!) for the texture was as light and crumbly as any biscuit lover could desire.

Quick to cook - and easy to make too - at least bar the sugar dusting, a practice at which I appear to be largely incompetent (bear witness to the not-very-sugary-topping on a number of my efforts)

I could blame the recipe for not spelling out in words of one syllable that this step needs to be repeated from scratch for each and every biscuit - or I could admit that my cack-handedness and desire to grab a quick kip while the tiddler slept was more probably the reason for my undoing.

To anyone flicking enthusiastically through Domestic Goddess in search of the details (page 55 since you ask) I would counsel that unlike me you ensure a more-than-liberal sugar pressing on every biccie. Otherwise they just aren't sweet enough.

Will I make them again? Had the visitors not cancelled last minute (unforseen lurg) leaving all 30 cookies to be consumed by the two of us alone I would have said yes. As it is I think it's going to be a very, very long time til either of us will be able to face another peanut in any form whatsoever.