Monkey Nut Biscuits

Credit for this latest bake goes to my wife, Lesley, who refined the recipe and patiently shelled a bag of roasted monkey nuts in the process.

Monkey nuts are peanuts still in their shell, which means the nuts have no salt or anything else added. Combine them with a good quality peanut butter (the one we used has one ingredient: peanuts), and you get biscuits with a fresh, nutty taste. They have a soft textured centre and a crisp outer. You’ll find these are best enjoyed warm and eaten within a day or so.

Servings

This will give 3 batches of dough, each batch making 12 biscuits. You can freeze the mixture or keep it in the fridge for a week. That way you can have a biscuits snack ready in about 20 mins after thinking about it. 

Timings

10 mins to prepare and another 10 mins to bake in a fan oven at 180C.

You Will Need:

• 120g butter or margarine
• 150g crunchy peanut butter
• 50g shelled peanuts, roughly chopped
• 85g soft brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 350g self-raising flour

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180°c . Prepare a flat baking tray with some greaseproof paper.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar together until completely combined. 
3. Add the egg and mix in.
4. Sift in the flour. Add the chopped peanuts and mix to make a dough, use your hands at the end to combine into a ball.
5. Roll the dough into balls (about 1 tbsp of dough per ball) and place onto your baking sheets. Press each ball with  a fork to create a cross pattern which flattens the dough.
6. Bake in your pre-heated oven for 8-10 minutes until golden.
7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, they slide off the baking paper beautifully.

Here’s a great track from The Specials that is right on theme: Monkey Man.