Tony's Walnut Crescents

One of my most favorite cookies EVER are Tony Ferriera's walnut crescent cookies. He knows how much I like them & I think he bakes a special batch around the holidays when he knows we'll be around so I can gorge myself on these little delights! I asked him for the recipe, assuming it was some generations-old Ferriera family secret, and I couldn't believe it was one he found on cooks.com! Here it is for our cookie making enjoyment...

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Tony's Walnut Crescent Cookies
Recipe adapted from Cooks.com

1/2 lb butter
1/2 C powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
2 C flour
1/2 C walnuts, chopped in small pieces

Cream butter, then work in sugar until well blended. Add vanilla, nuts, and flour. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour (Tony sometimes skips this step if he's in a hurry and the results are fine). Shape dough into small crescents and place onto an ungreased cookie sheet. bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. While still warm, generously roll in powdered sugar to form a coating. Tony says if you're not choking on powdered sugar, you haven't put enough on. ;)

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies (AKA Copy Cat Doug's Moon Cakes)

***This week I had a random craving for an oatmeal and peanut butter combo cookie so I searched the web a bit until I found one I thought might be decent. Today when I mentioned it to Jack, he said his Dad made oatmeal peanut butter cookies a few times when he was young and called them "Moon Cakes." This stuck out to me for a few reasons. First, I've never seen my father-in-law cook anything except for scrambled eggs. I'm sure he CAN cook, I've just never really seen it. So I was intrigued that he felt motivated enough to make this recipe. Second, I thought the name "Moon Cakes" sounded pretty cool. I googled it, hoping for an awesome cookie recipe and instead found thousands of recipes for a Chinese bakery product. I imagined our posterity reading through a Harvey Recipebox Cookbook some day and having the mental image of Doug Harvey as being someone who baked Chinese treats for his kids. I literally laughed out loud. I still am actually.

Jack said his Dad made these cookies a couple of times but that despite his kids' requests for it afterward, he never made them again. I felt like I owed it to Jack to recreate something that could fill this decades-old-hankering. Or maybe my week-old-craving. Either way, here they are:

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Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

(AKA Copy Cat Doug's "Moon Cakes")

Ingredients

1 C peanut butter (chunky or creamy)

1 C butter

1 C granulated sugar

1 C firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 t vanilla

2 C quick-cooking oats

2 C all purpose flour

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

¼ t salt

1- 12 oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips, if desired

1.       Heat oven to 350 degrees.

3.       Beat peanut butter and butter with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in sugars, eggs, & vanilla until blended.

4.       In a medium bowl combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat flour mixture into peanut butter mixture just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips, if desired.

5.       Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 11-13 minutes.