salted peanut butter cookies.

How long does it take for you to register that something is beautiful?

Many a times we can just walk past a bunch of flowers and we'll proclaim how pretty they are. Maybe we'll snap a picture or two and then just walk away. But do we really leave with the feeling that we have just encountered some pretty flowers? Just last week I was at the Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay. I came across this rather large flower with purplish hues and petals so symmetrical it's a wonder it's not fake. It looked so perfect it stopped me in my tracks. But only as I continued to stare and marvel at the little details did I realise how gorgeous it was. I may have thought that it was pretty at first but without paying a bit more attention I wouldn't have realised the full extent of its beauty.

That's the problem isn't it? Our lives are so hurried today that we barely have time to stop and appreciate the beauty around us. We could have been becoming accustomed to a fast-paced lifestyle- walking fast, talking fast, reading fast. There could be many reasons.

Okay now I'm going to say that the above is just one of my many random thoughts that passes through my cluttered place of a brain, in case you ask what connection do flowers have with cookies. So yeah hey, random.

Actually this thought came to me as I was browsing instagram. I came across a user whose profile wrote "I like pretty things", and personally I like pretty things too, but what was my definition of pretty? So many people like pretty things - it's only natural - but what we see as pretty can't be the same right? I would like to say that I'm perhaps a bit more fussed about what constitutes as pretty or not. Similarly, I'm able to feel the ugliness of something (which does not have to be extremely repulsive, it can be pretty normal looking I guess) so intensely I can't even stand the thought of looking at it. So maybe I have a higher standard as to what I consider beautiful? Is this a perfectionist mindset? I wouldn't be surprised if I am one really.

Extremely disjointed frame of mind today, sorry.

So anyway, cookies. These are the best peanut butter cookies I've ever had. Extremely peanut buttery, thick, soft, not too oily, a little salty to go with the sweetness- what more can you ever ask of a peanut butter cookie? Make these.

Salted Peanut Butter Cookies
makes about 40
adapted from here

1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter
1 large egg
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder

coarse salt, for sprinkling on top of the unbaked rounds of dough

Preheat oven to 170C. Prepare baking sheets.

Whisk the flour and baking powder together.

Cream the sugars, peanut butter and butter together until creamy and smooth. Beat in the egg until combined. Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated.

Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of dough into balls and place them on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten the dough slightly. You can press any decoration you want into the dough at this point as well.

Bake between 10 to 12 minutes. Quickly sprinkle over the salt while the cookies are still hot.