I have a large bag of red skinned peanuts, which are a favourite snack of mine. I wondered if there might be any interesting recipes that I might make with them. Combining two of my interests, AI and cooking, I decided to ask ChatGPT for a suggestion.
The first suggestion included butter and an egg, and the measurement were in US cups. Good for vegetarians, but I wanted to have something vegan. I could have converted the cups, but why not get the AI to do it for me, so I asked it to give me a vegan recipe with metric measurements. This was the result:
Ingredients:
- 250g raw redskin peanuts
- 125g all-purpose flour
- 5g baking powder
- 2.5g salt
- 113g vegan butter, at room temperature
- 200g granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a food processor, pulse the raw redskin peanuts until they are finely ground into a smooth paste. This may take a few minutes, so be patient.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the vegan butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract until well combined.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, mixing until just combined. Stir in the peanut butter.
Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop rounded balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them 5 cm apart. Flatten each ball slightly with a fork, making a criss-cross pattern.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden and the centers are set. Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
I decided to give them a go. There are a couple of things to note.
I am not the greatest baker, and I didn't notice that the big difference between the two was the egg, which acts as a binder in baking. However, I ploughed on!
The next problem was that I had no patience for the peanut butter process! With my small food processor I was able to grind the peanuts down into a fine flour, but no sign of any smooth peanut butter. I did try adding some light oil, which helped a bit, but it wasn't a smooth butter! I ploughed on!
I mixed everything as instructed, made the cookies and put them in the oven. They baked! They spread out and rose a bit as expected, and browned around the edges.
I cooled them off as instructed, transferring carefully to a wire rack, and I got some reasonably tasty cookies!
Now, they were a but more crumbly that I would have hoped, but they did work as cookies. I did take it up with ChatGPT about the binder. Amazingly it apologised and offered me a new version of the recipe that was identical except for the addition of:
2 tbsp aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas)
That might certainly work!
Next task is for me to ask ChatGPT for ideas for what I can do with crumbly peanut cookies! 😀