Ghibli Week 6: The Borrower Arrietty's Peanut Butter and Jam Thumbprint Cookies

This post we shrink down in size and visit The Secret World of Arrietty (借りぐらしのアリエッティ). Based on the novel, ‘The Borrowers’ by Mary Norton, it follows a young boy’s discovery of the hidden world of the Borrowers, tiny people who live within the walls of his mother’s childhood home. Accompanied by a gorgeous soundtrack by French musician Cecile Corbel, you can listen to the theme song here.

(source) 

Now astute readers may be going 'Hey, wait a minute, you never said anything about doing Arrietty in your Ghibli Week run down', but after giving it some thought, I couldn't go past this movie especially since I adore the soundtrack. So without further ado, let's get to the recipe!

Blink and you'll miss the cookies in this scene.

It's peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time!

Thumbprint cookies or jam drops, I know these as 'those cookies with a bit of jam in the middle'. As you can tell, I'm probably not the most creative at naming things. I decided to make the cookie peanut butter flavoured because winning combination right there. To those with peanut allergies, please accept my apologies but these would be equally as good if you used shortbread instead. Hmm, that gives me an idea for a future post...This recipe's super simple as well and can easily be whipped up for afternoon snacks. Make a cup of your preferred tea or coffee and enjoy!

Vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract - whatever's on hand

Whipped until light and fluffy

Eventually you end up with this - it's quite soft and it's kind of got the consistency of icecream

Nut balls *snickers*

Flatten them slightly and...

Boop! Thumbprint cookies.

Wham, bam, there's the jam.

Doh! Nuts!

If you've been living under a rock for the past few days, you probably haven't heard the news that a Krispy Kreme's opened in Perth; donut lovers everywhere rejoiced. Apparently Perth broke the record for most donuts sold on an opening day; not sure if that's something to be proud of, but hey, take what victories you can!

Perth wasn't without quality donuts before Krispy Kreme came (try saying that ten times fast), my favourite donut could be found in a humble stall in Freo Markets. It's called Levi's Donuts and they do some of the best donuts I've ever had. They offer one of three choices: traditional, blackberry and dark chocolate; and man, there's nothing sweeter than sinking your teeth in a steaming hot, fluffy donut. Definitely worth checking out if you're in the markets.

Now when the craving for donuts struck, my solution was simple: make my own. But why go to all that effort of making the dough then frying it when you could've easily just driven to the store, I hear you ask, and I'll answer 'because I can' and honestly, home made trumps store bought. Plus there's something very satisfying about making something that and I quote sloth dad, 'are good as the store ones!'.

awwwww yeeeeeeeeeaahhhh

Cinnamon and sugar: classic combo

Icing sugar and mulberry jam: winning

Jammy innards

 Now this recipe hails from Masterchef Australia (I'm beginning to sense a pattern emerging) from Gary Mehigan (one of the judges if you're unfamiliar with the show). His recipe called for lavender sugar and while I have lavender outside in the garden, I'm not sure it's suitable for human consumption. I also decided to halve the original recipe, but you still make a decent amount depending on how big you intend the donuts to be (mmm mega donut). I also decided to try and be 'health conscious' and substitute margarine for the butter but I mean, you're basically deep frying dough then rolling it in sugar. So. Up to you.

The dough that this recipe makes is quite soft, so I tried to pipe the donuts into the oil. For me, at least, not a good idea although I would've probably had more success if I had used an actual pastry bag and wiped the knife clean between each separation of dough from the bag (hindsight's always 20/20) but I found two spoons do the job well enough. Plus you've got more of a chance of making round ones and not...well, I'll let the picture speak for itself. 

I really should invest in actual piping bags.

A vague quenelle shape

I've affectionately named the long one Bristol Stool 4

The two spoon method is definitely prettier.

This recipe is a bit time consuming so make sure that you set aside some time for it, especially the proving of the yeast and the frying. If you don't have a deep fryer, you can also use a saucepan or (my personal favourite) a wok. Just be mindful of heating the oil to the right temperature; a handy hint is to test it with a chunk of bread. If the bread fries to a golden brown in roughly thirty seconds to a minute, your oil's ready. Alternatively, you can look for a 'shimmer' (it's a bit hard to explain without pictures, but the surface of the oil seems to shimmer as if there's a mirage?) or if you have a bamboo chopstick; when you stick the tip in the oil, bubbles should form around the chopstick (again, hard to explain without pictures). Also between batches, wait for the oil to reheat: the longer they soak in the oil, the more oil they'll absorb. 

Everything you need: try to make sure the yeast is as fresh as possible!

I used a microwave to heat up the milk, sugar and margarine; make sure it's body temperature (you can test it by dropping a bit of milk on your wrist like you'd check a baby's bottle)

If the milk's not hot or too hot, the yeast won't work as well (tricky buggeryboo)

The yeasty, eggy, milky mixture

Looks like absolute rubbish but keep mixing it until...

It should be thick enough to form a ribbon when you lift the whisk

Use the 45 minutes - 1 hour to pamper yourself, you deserve it

The batter pretty much doubles in size, but be careful..

I dropped it on the counter and it deflated a bit

Golden brown and slighty round, don't overcrowd the fryer!