Salted Peanut Cookies for Doppelkopf Card Night

It’s my husband’s turn to host the guys to play doppelkopf (Doublehead), a card game popular in this part of Germany. This is a very long night as they often play until the wee hours of the morning.

What’s special about this group is they have been playing together since they were 16.

16.

That’s 34 years people.

Playing Doppelkopf

They’ve had a few years of breaks in between but are back at it now four times a year.

One member of the group, Father Klaus is more like the elder statesman of the group. He was their young rock-n-roll style priest/youth leader when they were all teens. Father Klaus seriously used to freak out their conservative Catholic parents with his long hair, his energy and modern ideas. In the summer months, he used to take them away on retreats to the Alps where they would do outdoor activities and build things, like outdoor alters.

Father Klaus now spends half his time in Burundi helping the poor. So as far as I am concerned he’s still rock and roll and way cooler that that even. The truth is, they all play for money but everything at the end of the evening is turned over to the good Father for his humanitarian efforts in Africa.

Father Klaus then:

Father Klaus now:

As, Nicholas D. Kristoff, co-author of the brilliant book Half the Sky pointed out in his NY Times column, when it comes to humanitarian work in far-flung and forgotten-about regions of the world, many nuns and priests rock.

So today when Dr. B picked up a case of Bitburger, brotchen, wurst, cheese, chips, and flips to feed the fellas, I contemplated contributing something sweet.

When I think about playing cards around a dining room table, I think of salted nuts as munchies. So I made salted peanut cookies.

Lots ‘o peanuts in this batter!

One of the cookbooks I shlepped over here when I moved to Germany was The Great American Baking Book by Patricia Lousada. She’s an ex ballerina who danced with the New York City Ballet and studied at the Cordon Bleu in Paris. The book contains many basic and some fancy recipes. I find it a great place to revisit and rediscover old favorites and find inspiration to tweak others. It’s where I found the recipe for these cookies. No tweaking needed. The book is available on Amazon used for under $2.

Ingredients:

• 3 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• (Sift above 2 ingredients together)
• 1 Stick Butter – room temperature
• 1 Stick margarine – room temperature
• 1+1/2 cups light brown sugar firmly packed
• 2 eggs – room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups salted peanuts
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

 

Directions: 

• • Beat together the butter, margarine and sugar until fluffy.  
  • Keep scraping the sides of the bowl down as you go.
  • Add eggs one at a time and then the vanilla.
  • Scrape the sides of the bowl down often, making sure everything is thoroughly mixed.
  • Fold in the flour/baking soda combination.
  • Stir in the peanuts.
  • Form balls between your hands and drop on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
  • Pour granulated sugar into a saucer.
  • Grease the bottom of a glass.
  • Dip the glass in the sugar and then use it to flatten a cookie.

Flattening uncooked cookies with sugar coated glass bottom

• Repeat until all the cookies are flattened.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until the edges turn golden.

Flattened, sugared cookies waiting for the oven

Vintage Dutch cigar promotion dish found in local thrift store for 1 euro

Sugary, salty and chewy.  A winning combo!