Ovenly's peanut butter cookies, with chocolate

When Smitten Kitchen wrote about Ovenly's salted peanut butter cookies, I was left with an incredible urge to taste them.  

Sometimes a recipe, and the story, just calls out to you, and for various reasons, this is one of those I had to make quick.  I love peanut butter and I've enjoyed some great PB treats (like these monster cookies and sandwich cookies, for example) but there have surely been times when peanut butter baked goods fall short of the flavor mark and you end up thinking you would've been better off just slathering the good stuff on to your morning toast.

So these highly-touted cookies, which promised intense peanut butter flavor, had to be tried.  There was little standing in my way because they only require a few ingredients and hardly more than a bowl and whisk to do the job.

You do need an ice cream scoop.  Okay, you don't actually even need that but with all the talk about the shape of these cookies (domed) and the marks on them (striations made from scooping cold dough with an ice cream scoop), I was entranced by the whole thing.  Believe it or not, I even went out and bought a new ice cream scoop. For baking, I already had a 1/4-cup scoop and a #50 scoop, which equals to a little over a tablespoon.  The large one is usually too large and I've always thought the smaller one was just a little too small!  Deb used the #40 scoop (1 2/3 tablespoons) for these cookies and I realized that's what I've been missing so I went out and got one!

Grating a little chocolate to add to these peanut butter cookies

I went ahead and added chocolate to these flourless peanut butter cookies.  Typical of me.  While I know that chocolate probably wasn't necessary per se, I simply can't resist the notion of adding chocolate whenever I can.  And the result?  As Mary from The Great British Baking Show would say: "these are scrummy!"  That would be scrumptious or yummy...in other words, really good!

I was tempted to call these "peanut butter-chocolate truffles" because these little mounds (which look remarkably like large unshelled walnuts, actually) have this fudgy, moist texture very much like a truffle.  The outside is firm and slightly crisp, the inside is very moist and a little chewy.  The flavor is 100% peanut butter, with a hint of chocolate in my case.  If you like peanut butter cups, I think you'll be a fan of these cookies!

Zucchini-almond cake

I enjoyed those zucchini bread cookies so much, I decided to try another zucchini recipe.  This time, a cake.  A very moist, gluten-free (though that's not a requisite for me...in fact, I enjoy gluten a little too much) cake.  It's another Martha recipe; I wasn't specifically looking for it but just like the cookies, I found it while browsing the site and it appealed to me so here we are.  (And by the way, Martha Stewart Cakes is finally coming into existence and I've already pre-ordered it!)

This zucchini-almond cake is basically a foam cake so it has a bouncy texture to it and is very moist, thanks in part to the zucchini.  It's made much like a genoise (except it's not quite one because there's baking powder in it) so you start by whisking eggs and sugar in a bowl set on top of a pot of simmering water to dissolve the sugar and get the eggs ready to be whipped in the mixer to its loftiest potential.  Then you fold in the other ingredients: almond meal mixed together with some potato starch (which I now know helps make a tender cake), melted butter, vanilla, and the grated zucchini.

When it comes to cake, I'm always chasing "moist" and this one definitely fits the bill.  If I have any qualms about it, it's that I've come to discover that gluten-free cakes made wholly with almond meal instead of flour makes for a heavier (albeit, moist) crumb that just makes the cake more filling.  It's light and heavy at the same time, if that makes any sense.  

This may sound crazy because I love almonds but I've now figured out that I, personally, prefer most cakes made with some component of flour instead of all almond meal (I'm not talking about flourless chocolate cakes though - I love those).  So I do wonder what this cake would taste like with some or all of the almonds replaced with, say, cake flour.  It may be a little less moist but I envision a lighter crumb akin to a chiffon cake, which is one of my favorite kind of cakes.

This cake is altogether very different from the zucchini bread cookies. While those are warm, nutty, and slightly spiced, reminiscent of a morning muffin or coffee cake, this zucchini-almond cake is likewise moist but on the side of an eggy-vanilla cake.  It gives off a wonderful perfume of eggs, sugar, and vanilla as it's baking.  It set my brain up for chiffon cake but as I mentioned above, the almond meal makes for a different texture and feel.  My husband didn't find it too heavy so it really is a matter of preference.

I had some cream in the fridge so I whipped some up for my husband to have with the cake.  He never says no to a little whipped cream on top of a piece of cake!  I often hear "this is really good with the whipped cream" from him.  

Making these zucchini recipes makes me wish I had a home garden of my own but, unfortunately, I am no gardener.  Not at all.  I'd love to have just a simple herb box (not even a "garden") but I'm the type of person who can't even keep a simple basil plant alive!  It's safe to say the farmer's market and Whole Foods can continue to count on my business.