A trip down soy nut lane . . .

During my first grocery shopping trip in Baltimore City--a long two months ago--I picked up some SoyNut Butter to eat instead of peanut butter. But, when I made my first SNB-&-J sandwich to go in my lunch for school, it was no bueno. The soy nut butter was dry and hard to spread. And, it tasted weird. Not necessarily bad, just different--smoky. It had a smoky aftertaste. It was strange.

So I shelved the soy nut butter, thinking that I could use it in a recipe or two, finish it off, and go back to the regular peanut butter.

My first recipe of choice: peanut butter, er, soy nut butter cookies. Surely these will taste the same.

But, I was wrong. They tasted BETTER. These cookies were awesome!!

To start, I combined peanut butter cookie recipes from I Like You, Hospitality Under the Influence and Better Homes and Gardens, New Cook Book.

Then, upon realizing that I had no measuring spoons, I measured everything by eye. I cooked quite a bit over the past year before moving to Baltimore, so I had an idea what a tablespoon or a teaspoon looked like. But, I was a bit nervous. I like things exact, especially recipes. But, this was fun--different! Freeing.

So, armed with only mixing bowls and a single measuring cup, the following is how I came to bake and eat my very first soy nut butter cookies.


RECIPE:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup soy nut butter
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar (or 1/4 cup honey)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
small bowl of sugar, for rolling dough


In a mixing bowl, beat margarine and soy nut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup of the flour, the sugars, egg, baking soda, baking powder, and vanilla. I used the same amount of soy nut butter as the asking amount of peanut butter. And, I mixed everything with my hands. No mixer, here, folks!


Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in additional sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.


Flatten by crisscrossing with the tines of a fork.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 7 - 9 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool and serve! YUM!!