Peanut cookies for mother's day

A post on mother's day in memory of my mum.

Peanut cookies were one of my favorite home made biscuits when I grew up, they were extremely moorish but I think the real reason was the trip to Paddy's Market to get the main ingredient of raw peanuts, such an exciting place to visit.

Paddy's Market in the '60's was not the sterile place it is today, then it was alive with the smells and squawking of live chickens, ducks, geese, tempting sweet puppies and kittens that I so wanted to have for my very own, sweet fluffy chicks, laying hens and song birds of all varieties. Fruit, vegetables, fresh eggs of all sorts, fish, meat. Fresh raw and roasted peanuts and something called rock candy that I adored that was hand made by a sweet maker and only available at Paddy's, it was a kind of nougat filled with nuts and dried fruit and really hard, hours of chewing pleasure for a kid. I was delighted and fascinated by the market and when I went to Thailand in the mid-seventies I recognised my childhood past in the the markets I saw there.

The nuts and veggies fetched, we'd go home and mum would make these peanut cookies, after a cuppa, a bex and lie down of course.

These biscuits are sweet and very crunchy, a perfect afternoon tea biscuit.

1/2 lb butter
1 and 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 scant dessertspoon of cocoa
3 cups self raising flour
2 small eggs
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 cups raw peanuts, skins left on

Beat sugar with the two eggs, then add peanuts, salt, vanilla essence, self raising flour, cocoa and mix all together.

Melt the butter and mix into above ingredients while still hot.

Make into small round balls and flatten onto a greased tray, they will spread quite a lot.

Cook in a moderate oven for 10 - 15 minutes. Watch them because they can catch and burn.

Cool on tray a bit before putting onto a cake rack to completely cool.

Mum's recipe doesn't say how many they make, I usually get around 25 from the mix.

Enjoy.