Sooooooo Many PB Cookies

I made so many PB cookies last week.

Soooo many.

I think the final count was around 72... so like 6 dozen.  

In hindsight, it was way too many.

But, hindsight was something not really available when I was smack in the middle of rolling out ever so much dough for these bad boys.

I did, however, learn a neat trick.

Partly why I mention it actually.

I mean, it isn't genius or anything, and I am wholly certain others have been doing this forever, but for whatever reason I only alighted upon this now.

:)

When dealing with any sort of 'butter-based' dough, keeping it chilled helps keep it firm and manageable.

And this peanut butter cookie dough is especially crumbly when warm, and part of preparing them for baking is literally rolling them between two hands, so it can warm pretty easily.

Anyway... I used to just keep 'unused' portions in the fridge, as my mother and her mother before her used to do.  Which works just fine... but as I mentioned above, this particular batch was monstrous.  A very large amount of dough.

Plus I got tired of going in and out of the fridge.

Anyway... I decided to put my dough bowl inside of a larger bowl filled with ice water.

It not only kept the dough SUPER cool and very firm, but it meant that I could just keep it out on the counter right next to my work space.

Not a terribly big deal to be sure, but it can definitely make a difference when you're reaching for your 72nd ball of dough.

Anyway, like I said, I'm sure others have been doing this trick, but I've never seen it or read about it myself, so this was my first time doing it.

It was nice!

It sure made baking 6 dozen cookies a little more bearable!

(oh, and the cookies, you ask?  They turned out delicious... We ended up having to give some away they were too delicious.)

Peugeot Chateauneuf Pepper Mill

Well, I finally got my Peugeot Pepper mill.

:)

It's been a long, long, time, but I've finally replaced my old shitty pepper mill with a worthy upgrade.

I did a fair bit of research and experimenting (and actual testing), and came up with the Peugeot Chateauneuf as the best mill I could find.  

The 23cm version (they make a few sizes).  Anything smaller seemed a waste, and the larger one just seemed cumbersome.  23 cm felt just right.

I found that there are truly a myriad of styles, shapes, themes, mechanisms, and functionalities to grinding peppercorns.  Many (the vast majority) are cheap wooden or plastic mills, with plastic mechanisms (the gears and such inside).  Definitely representing much of the 'low' end of the market, these cheap grinders also bled into the mid, and even high end a bit!  I was surprised.

Anyway, in my testing, and in my own experience using herb mills and grinders, the tantamount concern is of course the grinding mechanism.  So, this absolutely has to be solid metal in my opinion.  Surprisingly few grinders have this.  

The Peugeot Chateauneuf has absolutely no plastic in the working parts.  Anything which needs to twist, grind, or rotate is all solid metal.  This was a big deal.  

Secondly, the grade selector (to select variable levels of coarseness) is a very nice, solid metal piece which - unlike many other varieties - moved fluidly and sturdily.  This was also important.

This model offers six (yup!) coarseness selections.  

From ultra fine - such as you'd find in a pepper shaker, and my least-favoured coarseness - all the way to ultra coarse - barely cracked at all, like you'd expect on a Steak au Poivre or Brandy Cream sauce or something like that.  

Anyway, I was used to having to manually grind whole peppercorns in my mortar and pestle to get that level of coarseness.  Yup.  I'm movin' on up.

And, lastly, and of lesser concern to me, was the aesthetics.  The 'look and feel' of the Chateauneuf was pleasant and far superior to the majority of mid- to high-end pepper mills.  It has the traditional fluted design, but is very weighty and solid, and has the nice metal rings for the working parts.  Pretty.

Anyway... you have to pick it up and use it to get the FULL sense of any pepper mill's worth, but in my own search for the best, this one placed first.

And I am very pleased with it.

;)

I had thought of getting rid of my old grinder, but now I think I'll just fill it with something else.  Maybe some coriander.  Or maybe I'll do a peppercorn medley of green and white and red?  We'll see!